Call for national plan to deal with growing Hep B and C

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 28

On the occasion of World Hepatitis Day today, experts have called for a national strategy to address the growing burden of viral Hepatitis in India with the disease being called a silent epidemic.

While jaundice and acute liver failures caused by water borne Hepatitis A and E viruses remain a cause of concern, the bigger worry, in expert opinion, is from the growing burden of chronic liver disease, cirrhosis and liver cancer caused by Hepatitis B (HBV) and Hepatitis C (HCV) viruses which spread through contaminated blood, mainly unsafe transfusion or injection practices.

WHO estimates India’s national prevalence of the HBV at 4 per cent of the population and of the HCV at 1.2 per cent.

“Around 40 million Indians live with chronic HBV and 12 million with chronic HCV virus representing numbers that dwarf the HIV epidemic in proportion. Yet there’s little national response to these killer viruses. We must on priority administer HBV vaccine at birth to each of our 2.7 crore new-borns annually. To address Hepatitis C, screening of the population followed by freely available treatment is the key. There is no vaccine for HCV,” Dr Samir Shah, Founder, National Liver Foundation says.

The WHO and the government estimates suggest more than a million people die each year in India from liver diseases caused by Hepatitis C and B. Besides, annually, one lakh die of liver cirrhosis and liver cancers mainly from Hepatitis B alone.

Liver experts say among all carriers of HBV and HCV, 20 to 30 pc will annually develop liver cirrhosis. Out of these, three per cent will annually get liver cancers progressing to death.