Consultation on Illness Assistance Fund
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, March 12 2013: With the recent inclusion of Hepatitis treatment under the ambit of Manipur State Illness Assistance Fund (MSIAF), a day-long State level consultation programme was jointly organized by All Manipur Anti-drug Association (AMADA) and Community Network for Empowerment (CoNE), Manipur in collaboration with Directorate of Health Services, Government of Manipur at the office of Directorate of Health at Lamphelpat here today.

Deputy Director of (PH) Medical Directorate, Dr W Khoibi Devi, who talked on the structure, eligibility, process, reimbursement of assistance under MSAIF, said that the financial help upto Rs 1.5 lakh is being granted on reimbursement basis to the selected beneficiaries only once in life and the applicants should be a holder of BPL card or annual income certificate of Rs.25thousand issued by SDO or a district level officer above the rank of SDO.

She informed that since the inception of the scheme in 2011, Health Directorate has received more than 300 applications and 14 persons have been benefited so far.

Another resource person Dr Lokeshwar Singh, Asst.

Professor, JNIMS, who talked on ' Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infection in Manipur-treatment availability and its challenge' pointd out that HCV is transmitted through blood to blood contact and it is vulnerable among injected drug users and the prevalence rate of HCV among HIV infected person is very high in the state.

"As of now treatment is costly and only some affordable people are receiving it.

Base investigation of the illness might cost around Rs 1.5-2lakh and including the expenses for side effects/complications, the total amount might reach upto Rs 7-8 lakh.

It's incurable but there is still good chance for those who got treated before 6000 load of Hepatitis virus and treatment is only for virus remission," Lokeshwar explained.

While sharing their reservations over MSIAF and its guidelines, delegates who attended the consultation programme, noted that most of the people living with HIV and HCV are poor but not listed in BPL category.

In addition to this, most of the people in Manipur including poor and ignorant HIV/HCV or co-infected persons have not benefited from the scheme simply due to lack of awareness about MSIAF.

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