Viral Hepatitis Kills 3.5 Lakh In SE Asia; Patient Population Crosses 100 Million

Viral hepatitis, which causes more deaths than HIV and Malaria in South East Asian region, kills at least three and half lakh people in the region every year despite availability effective vaccines and other treatments against this silent killer.

According to latest estimates by World Health Organisation, viral hepatitis is driving rates of liver cancer and cirrhosis in South East Asian region and it is causing premature death. With more than 100 million people infected with hepatitis B and hepatitis C, the disease is second major killer after tuberculosis in the region.

"These numbers are unacceptable as there is an effective vaccine and treatments are available for hepatitis B and C," says Poonam Khetrapal, WHO regional director for South East Asia.

The disease spread in this region is alarming as 90 per cent of the patients can be effectively cured with available treatments, she added.

While the key challenge in combating hepatitis is that 95 per cent of the people with chronic hepatitis are not aware that they are infected, the other definite reason is lack of access to treatment. Only 1 per cent of the patient population has access to treatments at present.

Mother to child transmission, unsafe injections and blood transfusions are the major causes of infection spread. While the vaccination can effectively prevent mother to child transmission, better measures to ensure safe injection and blood transfusion can arrest the spread of hepatitis B and C. Promoting clean food and water can prevent the infection of hepatitis A and E too, say experts.

While, increasing access to hepatitis tests is another strong measure to scale up the treatment. WHO, which plans to release its first hepatitis testing guidelines this year, expects its recommendations to simple testing strategies can help scale up the treatments and care.

Though global governments and health agencies hope for eliminating hepatitis completely by 2030, effective implementation of safe and ethical medical practices and better standards of life especially to ensure hygienic food and water will play a critical role in fighting this disease.

While aggressive measures are proposed globally by healthcare agencies including WHO, several corporate majors too have joined hands to this cause. Indian drug maker Cipla had on July 28th conducted a series of events to mark the World Hepatitis Day for creating awareness, counselling and treatment of Hepatitis C.

Viral hepatitis, an inflammation of the liver due to a virus, is currently the 7th leading cause of death globally, accounting for 1.4 million deaths per year – more than HIV/AIDS or malaria. The most common of the viruses are hepatitis B and C, which affect up to 400 million worldwide and cause 80 per cent of liver cancer deaths worldwide.