BHUBANESWAR: Tackling the scourge of hepatitis B needs to move to the phase of “calling out people to come forward and assess themselves so that they avail the very effective treatment, if found infected,” said founder ASIA HEP Hong Kong Ltd and member of WHO Hepatitis B Management Guideline Committee Dr Nancy Leung.
The renowned Hong Kong-based gastroenterologist who delivered the annual Blumberg Oration at the World Hepatitis Day and Hepatitis B Eradication Day function organised by the Kalinga Gastroenterology Foundation (KGF) here said vaccination of newborns has been mostly universalised across the globe. The next step is to detect HBV infected people and ensure they are not deprived of treatment.
“Globally the HBV incidence rate is falling as the new generation is being protected through vaccination. The issue now is to find people who are already infected. Screening the population for HBV and providing them with the available treatment should be the priority of governments,” she said in a chat with TNIE here.
Hepatitis B is preventable through vaccines and treatable. However, over 80 per cent of the people living with hepatitis lack prevention, testing and therapeutic services. The WHO estimates that hepatitis B and C affect 325 million people worldwide and cause 1.4 million deaths annually.
As per the National Action Plan for combating viral hepatitis in India, the country harbours 10-15 per cent of the entire pool of HBV carriers in the world. There are around four crore people living with HBV of whom at least one fourth will suffer from cirrhosis and liver cancer, said KGF Chairman and President of South Asian Association for Study of the Liver [SAASL] Prof SP Singh.
Prof Singh said, HBV vaccination has been included in routine immunisation programme and Odisha Government has taken initiatives for free treatment of patients. But there a need of setting up laboratory facilities to detect HBV infected persons and provide treatment to them.
The annual KGF Samman was conferred on noted gastroenterologist and adjunct professor of The Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University Dr VG Mohan Prasad by Secretary-General of Indian National Association for Study of Liver Dr Kaushal Madan.
Among others , KGF secretary Tuhin Kanti Ghosh, Director, Family Welfare Dr Saroj Kumar Nayak and Dean, Acharya Harihar Regional Cancer Centre, Cuttack Prof Niranjan Rout spoke on the occasion.