This month eminent Indian liver transplant surgeon Prof Dr Subhash Gupta will arrive in Karachi with his team to perform three to four liver transplants at the Ojha campus of the Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS), the varsity’s vice-chancellor announced on Saturday.
Prof Dr Saeed Quraishy made the announcement on the sidelines of a scientific conference on gastroenterology and liver diseases, which was organised at a hotel in the city by the Pak GI & Liver Diseases Society.
Technical and scientific cooperation in the field of health is suspended between Pakistan and India for the past many months due to extreme border tensions and deadly skirmishes on the Line of Control and the Working Boundary between the two countries, while India has also suspended issuance of health visas to Pakistani patients, especially children.
Under these circumstances, the arrival of a leading Indian transplant surgeon is a good omen and would help Pakistani surgeons and doctors to learn from his experience and expertise in the field of transplant surgery, said Dr Quraishy.
Conference
The DUHS vice-chancellor said provision of potable water is the most important intervention in preventing and controlling the outbreak of extensively drug-resistant typhoid in Sindh, which has now spread from Karachi to Sukkur after being initially reported in Hyderabad.
Dr Quraishy advised people to boil water for at least 20 minutes and only then consume it for drinking purposes in order to avoid contracting infectious water-borne diseases.
Lauding the organisers of the gastroenterology and liver diseases conference, he said the DUHS is providing hands-on training to young gastroenterologists and hepatologists. He offered his university’s resources to the Pak GI & Liver Diseases Society for conducting joint training sessions, conferences and workshops to train young doctors.
Prof Dr Shahid Ahmed, patron of the Pak GI & Liver Diseases Society, said sewage-mixed water has emerged as the major cause of stomach illnesses caused by bacteria and viruses, including typhoid, gastroenteritis, diarrhoea and various types of hepatitis, in Karachi and the rest of Sindh, where millions are forced to drink filthy water without knowing its risks and hazards.
“Under these circumstances we have established the Pak GI & Liver Diseases Society to create awareness among the masses and to train young doctors so that people could be protected and those suffering from ailments could be treated properly.”
Demanding of the government to impose an immediate ban on the sale of antibiotics as over-the-counter drugs and without any prescription across Pakistan, Dr Ahmed urged doctors to prescribe third-generation antibiotics very cautiously to avoid emergence of more drug-resistant strains of deadly bacteria.
Dr Lubna Kamani of the Liaquat National Hospital deplored the fact that hepatitis C is spreading at an alarming rate across Pakistan and that despite being a preventable disease, it is causing thousands of deaths in the urban and rural areas of the country.
“If hepatitis C is not controlled in Pakistan in the coming years, other countries may impose travel restrictions on Pakistan, and only those people who don’t have hepatitis B and C virus in their blood would be allowed to travel to the developed countries.”
In his keynote address, eminent gastroenterologist Prof Dr Wasim Jafri spoke about various types of hepatitis, including A, B, C, D and E, discussing their mode of transmission and available treatment options in Pakistan. He stressed that the only option for the government and the people is to thwart the different types of viral hepatitis to save lives as well as monetary resources on their treatment.
Dozens of leading gastroenterologists and hepatologists from public and private sector hospitals were part of the gastroenterology and liver diseases conference. They spoke on various water-borne diseases, liver ailments, different types of viral hepatitis and other issues relating to gastroenterology and hepatology.
DUHS Registrar Dr Amanullah Abbasi, Dr Sajjad Jamil, Dr Nazish Butt from the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre and others also addressed technical sessions and workshops during the day-long conference.
