A 'Global Safe Injection' campaign was today launched by the Centre and World Health Organisation here to eliminate viral Hepatitis by 2030.
A pilot project in this regard was started in Punjab which has the highest incidence of Hepatitis C.
Arshad Altaf, WHO Consultant, Geneva said a number of pilot projects on injection safety shall be undertaken by Government of India and WHO.
The other states reported with high incidence of Hepatitis C are Haryana, north eastern states and coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Naidu. Beside India, Uganda and Egypt are the other countries where the project is being launched, he said.
Benedetta Allegranzi, Coordinator and Team leader of WHO Injection Safety Project, from Switzerland said the project was aimed at eliminating viral Hepatitis by 2030.
As per WHO, 33 per cent of Hepatitis B and 42 per cent of Hepatitis C cases are attributed to unsafe injections, she said.
The WHO official said unsafe injections, mostly in the form of reuse of safety injections, continues to be a serious threat to life of patients and health workers.
Globally, 400 million people (about 40 million in India) are estimated to be infected by Hepatitis, with 95 per cent patients being unaware of their condition as Hepatitis C is a slow killer, as per WHO data.
Harminder Kaur Sandhu, Civil Surgeon, Rupnagar said the WHO team has visited Public Health Center in Bharatgarh to make the staff aware of safe injection campaign. She said the focus of the programme was to appeal people to make minimum use of injections.
Shashi Kant, Director NRHM Punjab, said the global health body has recommended one-time use injections, and that Punjab will take lead in eliminating hepatitis B and C.
