Hepatitis-C kills more people than HIV in Manipur
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, July 30 2014: Termed as mother of all illness hepatitis-C is slowly emerging as a serious health issue in Manipur.

Prevalence of hepatitis-C among injecting drug users in Manipur is as high as 80 to 90 percent and hepatitis-C today kills more people than HIV/AIDS.

This is according to a February 2013 report presented during the observance of World Hepatitis Day organised jointly by Department of Health Services, Government of Manipur, Community Network for Empowerment (CoNE), and pharma company ZydusHeptiza at Manipur Press Club here today.

The report also stated that there are 454 persons undergoing treatment in ART centre, JNIMS, who are co-infected with HIV and Hepatitis-C.During the same period ART centre, RIMS, reported 769 such cases.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Kh Sasheekumar Mangang, Joint Director, Directorate of Health Services, Government of Manipur, informed that to look into the issue of hepatitis-C in the state, the Committee on Hepatitis-C Assessment has already been formed with Principal Secretary Health, Government of Manipur as the chairman of the committee.

Considering high treatment cost steps have been initiated to provide monetary assistance to people who are co-infected with HIV and hepatitis-C.The assistance will be provided irrespective of one's income group, he added.

Highlighting prevention measures, Dr Kh Lokeshore Singh, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, JNIMS, encouraged awareness promotion through partnership and voluntary testing of hepatitis-C. Dr T Jeeten Kumar Singh, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, RIMS, said we still do not have a state-wide data on hepatitis and the data that we have gathered from small assessments may be the proverbial tip of the iceberg.

RK Nolinikanta, President of CoNE, stated that the campaign will also help patients from BPL families in linking up with assistance, up to 1.5 lakh, provided under the Manipur State Illness Assistance Fund.

Hepatitis-C treatment is out of reach for many and in the absence of state assistance meant specifically for hepatitis-C very few can afford the treatment which sometimes cost up to lakhs.

Theme of the World Hepatitis Day this year is 'Hepatitis: Think Again' which emphasises the urgency to raise awareness of chronic hepatitis B and C and driving policy change for improvements in health outcomes of patients around the world.

It may be noted here that World Hepatitis Day is one of only four official disease-specific world health days recognized by the WHO.

World Hepatitis Day was launched by the World Hepatitis Alliance in 2008 in response to concern about the lack of priority for hepatitis as a global killer and became an official WHO day in 2010 .

As in other parts of the world, the World Hepatitis Day was observed by Hepatitis Forum of Manipur (HepFom), Yaiskul Hiruhanba Leikai at Lamyanba Shanglen, Palace Compound here today.

The observance was attended by Abhiram Mongjam, Joint Director of Manipur AIDS Control Society (MACS); RK Tiken, president of HepFom and Th Subhash, treasurer of HepFom as Chief Guest, President and Guest of Honor respectively.

Speaking on the occasion, Abhiram Mongjam stated that Hepatitis is the world's 8th biggest killer with the same mortality rate as HIV/AIDS.

He informed that approximately 500 million people worldwide are living with either hepatitis B or hepatitis C and killing close to 1.4 million people every year.

Timely treatment can only save the life of a person suffering from the deadly disease, he added.

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