Pakistan Launches Major Hepatitis C Elimination Drive
Pakistan has launched a major national campaign with the World Health Organisation to eliminate Hepatitis C by 2030, beginning with an initial rollout in Islamabad before expanding across the country. The Prime Minister’s Hepatitis C Elimination Programme was introduced in the federal capital as part of a wider public health push focused on screening, diagnosis, prevention and free treatment.
The first phase aims to reach 1.6 million people in the Islamabad Capital Territory within six months. Officials said the programme will later move into wider national implementation, with the government targeting more than 164 million people through phased screening and treatment services.
The initiative comes at a time when Pakistan faces one of the world’s heaviest Hepatitis C burdens. Health officials said millions of Pakistanis are living with the infection, while thousands of new cases emerge every year, often linked to unsafe medical injections, contaminated blood practices and inadequate infection-control systems.
Federal Health Minister Syed Mustafa Kamal described the programme as a historic public health intervention and said it represented the result of years of planning. He stated that the government had allocated Rs67 billion for the campaign and stressed that citizens would receive screening and full treatment without cost under the initiative.
Officials said the National Database and Registration Authority would support the nationwide screening mechanism to improve transparency and outreach. In Islamabad, 12 screening counters have already been established at federal hospitals, allowing citizens to access testing during the early phase of the campaign.
The health minister warned that untreated Hepatitis C can lead to serious liver disease, including cancer, and said Pakistan’s healthcare system must move from a disease-treatment model to a stronger prevention-based approach. He urged the public to participate actively, saying early detection was essential to stopping the spread of the virus.
Pakistan’s campaign is being shaped with technical assistance from the WHO, which has backed elimination targets and provided guidance on global best practices. WHO Representative in Pakistan Dr Luo Dapeng said the programme could help prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths and new infections if implemented effectively and consistently.
The government also linked the programme to wider economic and social benefits. Officials said preventing advanced liver disease would reduce hospital costs, ease pressure on public hospitals and protect families from the financial burden of long-term treatment.
The next stage will depend on how efficiently the Islamabad phase is completed and how quickly provinces are integrated into the national plan. Authorities say sustained public participation, safe medical practices and coordinated federal-provincial implementation will be critical if Pakistan is to meet the 2030 elimination target.