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N World Hepatitis Day, as a doctor and public health researchers focus on Pakistan’s health care system, we note that the country now guides global hepatitis C infection with 8.8 million cases. We also realize that family physicians can change the crisis through a prevention approach that no other health care model can provide.
This year’s World Hepatitis Day Theme – Hepatitis: Let’s break it – calls for immediate action to eliminate financial, social and systematic barriers standing in the way of eliminating hepatitis. In Pakistan, family physicians represent our most powerful tool to achieve these obstacles and achieve the global goal of eliminating hepatitis by 2030.
When we mark World Hepatitis Day on July 28, Pakistan faces a passionate reality. One of the twenty adults suffers from infection, we face a health emergency that kills 366,000 Pakistanis annually. Number is alarming: 44 % of all new global hepatitis C infection is found in Pakistan with unsafe medical injection. Provincial differences are strict. Biluchistan has 25.77 % spread while Sindh is 2.55 %.
Unlike hepatitis -a and -E, which spreads through contaminated water, hepatitis C mainly transmits through blood contact. Most patients contract infection without contracting infection during medical care.
Family physicians have the best hope of turning this tide. Unlike experts, patients see epic, family doctors build long -term relationships with families throughout the generations. This continuity is individually positioned to implement their comprehensive strategies for preventing them, which solve individual risk factors and community widespread transmission samples.
Research shows that hepatitis-C treatment specialist in basic care settings using easy diagnostic algorithms are found in specialist centers, proving that family doctors can provide effective care at the society level. Their practice model allows them to track families over time, which identifies joint risk behavior and domestic transmission patterns.
The topic of this global hepatitis Day of “breaking obstacles” is the most practical application of family physicians, who are uniquely positioned to eliminate the obstacles to the abolition of hepatitis in Pakistan.
Family physicians break the social barrier, eliminating expensive experts, eliminating expensive consultations and reducing patients’ travel costs. They eliminate social obstacles by understanding their patients’ social context, residential conditions and health behavior. This insight allows them to provide culturally sensitive education about the risks of transmission, especially around unsafe injection methods. In our communities, patients rely on family doctors who are more than distant experts. It is very important to prevent hepatitis-C as many transmission routes include personal behaviors, such as sharing razors at barber shops or accepting used syringes.
Family physicians remove hepatitis maintenance by integrating normal health care and eliminating systemic obstacles. WHO 2024 guidelines emphasize the integration, which allows them to connect hepatitis C screening with diabetes management, hypertension control and routine protection.
Family physicians can screen, effectively treat and prevent transmission through community education and advocacy. Both the public and private sector are used effectively in health care facilities, it can be Pakistan’s most exciting path to achieve hepatitis by 2030.
Hepatitis-C is a “silent killer” because patients remain neutral for years while inadvertently transmit the virus. The permanent care model of family physicians enables systematic screening of patients at risk before complications. Hepatitis-C-testing can identify the skin infection-Family Doctors during the usual basic career-to-core care periods, chronic diseases management seizures or pre-processed diagnosis-when the treatment is the most effective. Their practice records allow them to detect the risk element over time, which implement the risk -screening protocol that maximize detection while improving the use of resources.
When family doctor indicates hepatitis C infection, they enable comprehensive care harmony. They can manage both hepatitis-C treatment and patients’ conditions, ensuring that drug talks are avoided and therapeutic restrictions are maintained through ongoing relationships. Their dimensional care model supports monitoring hepatitis-C treatment and after-the-treatment monitoring. Contrary to expert references, which may include months of waiting periods, family exercises provide immediate access to care and faster treatment.
Family physicians have to advocate for proper infection control in all health care settings. They can, for example, guide, implement universal precautions in their practice, and use their reference power to improve safety throughout the system. Their position allows them to identify the transmission samples associated with health care and inform them of healthcare officials. When several patients with the same facility develop hepatitis-C, family physicians often recognize this style and mobilize their investigation.
The remarkable success of the hepatitis pilot program in Gilgit -Baltistan shows the feasibility of eliminating comprehensive hepatitis C by leading family exercises. Launched in MC Chelse (Demar District) and UC Mirkunja (Shaigar District) in partnership with AGA Khan Development Network, the move yielded extraordinary results. In just 10 days, the pilot program successfully screened 14,000 people, with Gilgit -Baltistan’s 1.7 million population screening projects. This rapid capacity of screening shows that family physicians, when properly supported and integrated, can effectively provide population -level health interference.
Rs 68 billion has been provided in two stages with the Prime Minister’s National Hepatitis C program, now family physicians have resources and mandates to guide the fight. The program aims to eliminate hepatitis C by 2029, which mirrored Egypt’s successful success. The national program is based on a strong foundation – the hepatitis unit was first launched at the Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute and was later expanded. The federal government provides Rs 35 billion on the basis of a similar contribution to the provincial governments, which first has plans to spread Islamabad, Gilgit -Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir across the country.
Family physicians should manage the risk diagnosis for all patients, asking for injection history, surgery, dental procedures and hospitals. High -risk patients should get hepatitis C testing regardless of the symptoms. Practice -based registry can track screening efforts and treatment results, which makes Pakistan desperately needed in the national surveillance system. Prevention is effective through family exercise. Each hepatitis C prevents immediate treatment costs, but also saves long -term costs of servers, liver cancer and liver transplantation. This phased point of view will help minimize the risk of transmission and therefore the cost of treatment.
Pakistan’s hepatitis C calls for a systematic action to end the barriers to end the crisis. Family physicians represent our most effective tool to break these financial, social and systematic barriers that stand between Pakistan and hepatitis free.
Evidence is clear: Family physicians can screen systematically, effectively treat and prevent transmission through social education and advocacy. If this cadre has been used effectively in the health care facilities of both the public and the private sector, they can represent Pakistan’s most enthusiastic route to eliminate hepatitis by 2030.
For policy makers and the public, this global hepatitis day message is easy: help family physicians with training, resources and identities. This will be cost -effective in a long time. In addition, it will promote proper management of standard screening, early identification, consultation and chronic hepatitis across the country. For Healthcare Administrators: Priority to strengthen family practice more than expert extension. For communities: Trust your family doctor to guide this fight.
Pakistan’s hepatitis C crisis demands a solution to family medicine. The question is not whether it is possible or not – is whether we will recognize family physicians and empower those who can break the barriers and perform it.
Dr. Tamizib Zulfiqar, Australian National University, is a research fellow at Canberra
Dr. Hina Javid is an associate professor at Family Medicine at the Health Services Academy in Islamabad.
