Three-day seminar on causes of liver failure begins

Karachi
An open-house on hepatology was held at a hotel on Friday evening to mark the start of a three-day conference sponsored jointly by the Pakistan Society of Hepatologists and the Mir Khalil-ur-Rahman Memorial Society (MKMRS).
The event titled “Causes of liver failure in South Asia” was presided over by the Urdu daily Jang’s health editor, Wasif Nagi.
It was a pleasant departure from the norm, since instead of papers being read or speeches being delivered there was direct interaction between doctors and the audience.
Most of the questions centred round the subject of cadaver and live donation and their ethical or religious connotations.
As for cadaveric donation, Dr Anwaar Khan said religion should not be a hindrance and even the most orthodox countries and leaders of the Muslim world like Saudi Arabia allowed it. He said so many cadaveric donations and transplants were being performed at the Royal King Saud Hospital in Riyadh. Similarly, he said, cadaveric transplants also take place at the Shaikh Zayed Hospial in Lahore and the Shifa Hospital in Islamabad.
“At the Shaikh Zayed Hospital in Lahore, these transplants are being carried out at a cost of around Rs2.8 million on the basis of cheques provided by the provincial government,” he said. “This amount is considerably low as compared with the world standards. This, however, is not the case with Islamabad’s Shifa Hospital which is a private facility.”
Khan said transplants performed at both Pakistani facilities had a highly encouraging success rate. However, he said, a team of experts had to be gathered and lots of expensive preparations had to be made for an operation. “I hope pretty soon people from Pakistan will not have to go to India, China, or the UK to get these transplants,” he said. “As for the donors, it has to be someone from among the blood relatives. If none are available, then lots of screening has to be done for a non-relative donor.”
Dr Badar Zuberi assured the questioners that both blood transfusion and liver donation were absolutely legal.
In reply to another question regarding dealing with and reducing mortalities from liver-induced diseases, he said the mindset of people had to be changed radically and extensive research needed to be conducted.
Another speaker, Dr Jafri was a wee bit critical and asked what else could be expected in a country where polio workers were killed. “In what direction are we heading?” he asked, stating that critical healthcare in Pakistan had to be totally overhauled.
Another questioner asked about the latest invention of tablets for Hepatitis C to which Dr Husnain Ali Shah replied that the tablet in question was Sovaldi and a US-based multinational with a Pakistani pharmaceutical company had worked out an arrangement to sell it at an affordable price in the country.
He said the tablet would cost the patient Rs300,000 with its effective duration being around six months and had fewer side effects than injections.
Arshad Sabri, the chairman of Mir Khalil-ur-Rahman Memorial Society, presented the vote of thanks.