Hepatitis warning (GS Paper 2, Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources)
Introduction:
- A WHO report has flagged the seriousness of India’s Hepatitis challenge.
- India is called the Hepatitis capital of the world. Despite a national programme to eliminate Hepatitis, India is seeing a huge burden of this disease.
The number of reported and unreported Hepatitis patients in India
- With nearly 3 crore Hepatitis B patients and more than 50 lakh Hepatitis C patients, the country’s burden of these liver diseases is the second highest in the world.
- They claimed more than a lakh lives in 2022.
- Even more worrying is that a very small fraction of the infected come under the diagnostic ambit.
- Less than 30 per cent of Hepatitis C cases are detected; the figure for Hepatitis B is less than 3 per cent.
National Viral Hepatitis Control Programme (NVHCP)
- It aims to eliminate Hepatitis C by 2030 and “achieve significant reduction in morbidity and mortality associated with Hepatitis B” by that year.
- The WHO report is a warning that the country has much work to do to attain this target.
- However, the global health agency has also struck a note of optimism: “Course correction between 2024 and 2026 can bring NVHCP on track”.
About Hepatitis
- Hepatitis refers to an inflammatory condition of the liver.
- It is commonly the result of a viral infection, but there are other possible causes of hepatitis.
- These include autoimmune hepatitis and hepatitis that occurs as a secondary result of medications, drugs, toxins, and alcohol.
- Autoimmune hepatitis is a disease that occurs when your body makes antibodies against your liver tissue.
- The liver is a vital organ that processes nutrients, filters the blood, and fights infections.
- When the liver is inflamed or damaged, its function can be affected.
- Hepatitis B and C are spread through contact with contaminated blood.
Hepatitis B: Symptoms and cures
- Hepatitis B can lead to the scarring of liver tissues and increase the risk of cancer.
- Diagnosis is complicated — carriers can harbour the virus for years without appearing to be diseased.
- They can infect others even when they do not show symptoms — these often show up only when the pathogen takes an aggressive form.
- There is no cure, though treatment can help manage symptoms to an extent.
- The NVHCP, initiated in 2018, provides free testing and medication.
- However, the WHO report indicates that the programme hasn’t touched most patients.
- Rigorous adoption of blood screening protocols in the past 20 years has substantially reduced the risks from transfusion.
- Most of the Hepatitis B infections in the country are today passed on from mother to child.
- Vaccination can prevent the disease but the highest immunity is conferred when the child is administered a jab just after birth.
- In India, less than 50 per cent infants get vaccinated this early.
- This is largely to do with the low rate of institutionalised births in large parts of the country.
- Informing community healthcare workers with vaccination protocols could increase the efficacy of the immunisation regime.
Hepatitis C cures
- Hepatitis C is far easier to treat.
- Anti-virals can cure the disease and prevent long-term liver damage.
Conclusion:
- According to WHO, treatment costs in India are amongst the lowest in the world.
- But 70 per cent patients eluding the diagnostic network speaks of a healthcare deficit that must be addressed immediately.
- Whether it’s containing viral diseases like hepatitis or bacterial infections like TB, there can be no shortcuts to expanding the country’s medical facilities.
