Hepatitis a silent killer: More awareness needed, say medical experts
Though the disease is contagious more infectious than HIV, it is yet to receive greater attention from the government.
BENGALURU: Medical experts lament that there is little awareness and governmental support to treat hepatitis infected patients and many of those afflicted are not even aware of it.
In 2015-2016, 1,80,000 units of blood were tested from across the State at the Individual Donor-Nucleic Acid Testing (ID-NAT) blood bank at the Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital. Of these, 1,200 samples were found to be hepatitis-B infected.
Though the disease is contagious more infectious than HIV, it is yet to receive greater attention from the government. "There is no centre for Hepatitis B patients like the ART centre for AIDS, no policy in place for the management of the disease. The treatment cost is also huge and hence vaccination becomes the best bet,” said Manjunath, technical director of the ID-NAT laboratory at Bowring Hospital.
Offering another way to handle the disease, Dr Sumana Kolar Ramachandran of Columbia Asia Hospital Yehwanthpur said, "We need to identify the localities where there is high incidence or increased number of those afflicted, only then can we make a plan on how to tackle the spread.”
“When most diseases have vaccines to control their spread, there is no reason one should not undergo vaccination for Hepatitis,” said Dr Udaya Kumar Maiya, Medical Director, Portea Medical.