Ahead of World Hepatitis Day tomorrow, the World Health Organisation has urged India to strictly adhere to the WHO injection safety guidelines for hepatitis prevention.
"The health sector needs to strengthen disease surveillance systems, ensure injection and patient safety, screen all blood products and ensure strict adherence to the new WHO injection safety guidelines while improving infant vaccination rates including birth dose of hepatitis B within first 24 hours of delivery," Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director of WHO for South-East Asia Region said today.
Around 40 million people live with chronic hepatitis B infection in India alone and 60 per cent living with HIV co-infected with hepatitis run the greater risk of complications and deaths.
"The responsibility also lies with individuals. Health promotion initiatives need to be strengthened and people made aware of how they risk getting hepatitis and what they need to do to protect themselves and their families from the hepatitis viruses.
"There is also need for awareness among health administrators, policymakers and medical professionals," Singh stressed.
Globally, Viral hepatitis kills 4,000 people every day. Each year an estimated 1.5 million people die due to hepatitis which includes deaths by liver cancer and cirrhosis. Nearly one third of the global hepatitis deaths -5,00,000 - occur in the WHO South-East Asia Region (SEAR).
Singh noted that WHO has come with 'Prevent hepatitis. Act now' theme this year for the World Hepatitis Day.
"The global focus this year will be on preventing hepatitis B and C. With effective vaccine and treatment, as well as a better understanding of how we can prevent hepatitis, we can aim to eliminate the diseases and save lives," noted Singh.
