India Needs Better Strategies To Control The Spread Of Hepatitis B: WHO Report

Hepatitis B poses a major threat to Indians. World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that approximately 40-60 million people in India are carriers of the Hepatitis B virus and the virus may affect two to five percent of India’s population. Eachyear, 100,000 patients die of viral Hepatitis (including Hepatitis B and C). A WHO report, which analyzed country-level performance in tackling the virus points out that the Union government is not doing enough to curb the spread of the disease.

The WHO report has severely criticized India's approach to tackling Hepatitis B, after conducting a global survey of nations and their policies on awareness-raising and partnerships, steps to prevent transmission, as well as taking adequate care for screening and treatment.

"This means that we in India do not know for sure, as to how many persons are infected with Hepatitis or are dying because of it. Rough estimates are drawn by WHO at a regional level, but the Union Health Ministry in India has no specific data to compare," said Dr Rakesh Rai, liver transplant surgeon at Fortis Hospital in Mulund.

Dr Ravi Mohanka, Liver transplant surgeon said that, a large number of general practitioners diagnose jaundice, which is the initial symptom of Hepatitis A, E (non-infectious) and B, C (infectious), but do not recommend specialized blood tests.

"They treat jaundice based on suspicion with basic medications, but may not test the blood for viral or non-viral Hepatitis. These cases are missed. The government has not made it mandatory for Hepatitis to be reported. How can it maintain data then?" said Dr Mohanka.

Dr Rai said, "Thus every patient who acquires jaundice is a high risk patient of viral Hepatitis (B or C) and to eliminate any long-term risk to health, like near-lethal deterioration of the liver, must mandatorily get the screening tests done for viral Hepatitis."

The WHO report also notes that there are not enough laboratories in the country to diagnose viral Hepatitis. Dr Mohanka agrees, "The Indian labs are equipped with antibody tests to screen blood for Hepatitis virus. But the precision of these tests is merely 80%. Twenty percent of the time, the virus may get missed. Blood transfusions to patients under such risky circumstances are a reality. Also, Hepatitis virus of the B and C type may not get picked up during the window period of 4-6 weeks after a person is infected."

The high quality NAT testing mechanism for blood rarely found in pathology laboratories around the country. "Testing the blood through NAT will increase the cost per transfusion by Rs1000. It is still a long road. With NAT though, one can be 100% sure that the blood is free of any virus including Hepatitis. One must always insist on getting the blood tested by NAT mechanism before it is being transfused to patients who are our friends or relatives," said Dr Mohanka.

India has not definitively established a goal to eliminate Hepatitis B. The WHO report points out that that there is no national public health research agenda for viral Hepatitis, neither is any routine screening done amongst the general population.

Dr Mohanka said, "The government should step up its act and intervene by framing policies to tackle Hepatitis B and C. Every patient who comes to a public hospital should be screened for Hepatitis and treatment should be made available for free. Also, screening of all high-risk groups like sex workers and drug users should be made mandatory. Vaccination against the disease amongst adults should be promoted. Any adult can and should get vaccinated against the virus to be on the safer side."

Source-Medindia