Health Minister launches National Viral Hepatitis Control Program

Public awareness and timely access to diagnosis and treatment could help prevent and reduce liver cancer deaths due to hepatitis.

To mark the World Hepatitis Day, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare JP Nadda launched today the National Viral Hepatitis Control Program in New Delhi. In line with its commitment to eliminate Viral Hepatitis by 2030 and reducing morbidity and mortality due to viral hepatitis from India, the new government initiative will provide free drugs and diagnostics facilities for hepatitis B and C at all the government hospitals.

The program aims to:

• Support and scale-up hepatitis prevention, testing, treatment and care services
• Treat a minimum of 3 lakh hepatitis C cases over a period of three years
• Will benefit over five crore people
• Provide laboratory testing and management of viral hepatitis with a de-centralized approach under the umbrella of National Health Mission and scaled up to Health and Wellness Centres in a phased manner.

Launched the "National Viral Hepatitis Control Program" with epitomize India's deep commitment towards reducing morbidity & mortality due to viral hepatitis in the country & released the commemorative stamp on the occasion of #WorldHepatitisDay. pic.twitter.com/zRPrR5QQpw

— Jagat Prakash Nadda (@JPNadda) July 28, 2018

World Hepatitis Day (WHD) is marked every year on 28 July to raise awareness of the global burden of viral hepatitis and to influence real change. Viral hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver caused by a viral infection. There are 5 main hepatitis viruses, namely A, B, C, D and E. Viral hepatitis B, and C are major health challenges, affecting 325 million people globally. They are root causes of liver cancer, leading to 1.34 million deaths every year.

In India, as per latest estimates from WHO, 40 million people are chronically infected with hepatitis B and six to 12 million people are chronically infected with hepatitis. C. Public awareness and timely access to diagnosis and treatment could help prevent and reduce liver cancer deaths due to hepatitis.