ISLAMABAD(National Times)- Health Minister Mustafa Kamal on Tuesday said that hepatitis C screening had been made compulsory for all employees of his ministry and the salaries of untested employees would be withheld next month onwards.

Kamal was addressing the inaugural ceremony of the Prime Minister’s Hepatitis C Elimination Programme in Islamabad, where he too got tested for hepatitis C, with his result coming out negative.

The programme was jointly launched by the World Health Organisation and the health ministry in May with the aim of ending the disease by 2030.

Kamal said on the occasion that hepatitis C screening was being made mandatory for the employees of other ministries as well, adding that letters would be sent in this regard.

He said the programme for the elimination of hepatitis C would be rolled out in phases, beginning with Islamabad where the government had set up 17 centres for screening. Meanwhile, testing facilities would also be made available at private hospitals, he said, according to state broadcaster Radio Pakistan.

The government was providing gadgets and testing kits to private hospitals as well, he added.

According to Radio Pakistan, he said the spread of hepatitis C in the country was a matter of “grave concern”. The spread, he said, could be controlled through effective treatment and raising awareness.

He said the federal government had begun consultations to take all provinces on board on the elimination programme, and the programme would be launched in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan as well.

Hepatitis is a deadly disease that affects an estimated 12.9 million people in Pakistan, including nine million with hepatitis C and 3.8 million with hepatitis B, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). Every year, more than 48,000 people die in Pakistan due to hepatitis infections that are preventable and curable, which equals one death every 11 minutes, WHO says.