Centre to roll out hepatitis plan

With viral Hepatitis, a liver inflammation caused due to viral infection, becoming major public health problem in the country, the Union Health Ministry is gearing up to roll out on World Hepatitis Day on July 28, a three-year Rs 517 crore national programme to cure, control and prevent the disease.

Currently, about 1.2 crore people are suffering from mild to acute liver inflammation in the country. The most common causes of viral hepatitis are the five unrelated hepatotropic viruses hepatitis A, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, hepatitis D and hepatitis E. Most of the common hepatitis types are preventable and treatable. While Hepatitis A (HAV) and hepatitis B can be prevented by vaccination, effective treatments are available for hepatitis C.

Aiming to eliminate the disease by 2030, the Government has prepared draft guidelines for the ‘The National Viral Hepatitis Control Programme’ wherein it has proposed setting up a national hepatitis cell at the central-level under the National Health Mission (NHM) to ensure implementation and monitoring for the desired outcomes.

As per the guidelines, a network of 665 testing centres in the public sector have been planned that can offer access to quality assured testing and diagnosis of hepatitis over next 3 years. A minimum of 1.6 lakh patients have been proposed to be treated in the first year, 10.1 lakh in second year and 30.1 lakh in the third year. 

Also, at least 100 treatment sites will be established in the public sector that can offer access to quality assured management of viral hepatitis with focus on treatment of Hepatitis C within next three years.

The Government aims to treat at least one lakh new hepatitis C cases each year in next three years.

A senior official said management of viral hepatitis, including diagnosis and treatment, will have provision of linkages for diagnosis and treatment of various types of hepatitis, including involvement of private sector. Focus will be on availability of services till district level through structured approach and move towards sub-district up to the PHC level in a phased manner, said the official.

The Union Health Ministry’s programme is in keeping with the WHO regional Action Plan for Viral Hepatitis in South-East Asia: 2016-2021.

An analysis done by SRL Diagnostics, a diagnostic chain in India, on Viral Hepatitis (A, B, C, E) testing done in its laboratories revealed that Hepatitis C Virus infection was most common in the Northern States of India when compared with other parts of the country.

However, the water born Hepatitis E virus infection was found to be the most common laboratory diagnosed viral hepatitis in India.

The data is based on more than eight lakh tests done pan India at SRL labs between January 2014 and May 2017.