Skip to main content

Hepatitis B: Is your Family Protected ?

Image
By
When Siddharth, a 22 year old, went to donate blood for his mother’s treatment, he was shocked to hear that he harboured the Hepatitis B infection! He was fit, played for his college cricket team and had not sufferred from jaundice. Hence his disbelief!
Hepatitis B is usually a silent infection. This year’s global awareness campaign  “Am I number 12?” was aimed at drawng attention to this frequency. In India, the rate is somewhat less; 43 of 2500 apparently healthy people tested positive during a free checkup camp in the city. Around 20-40 million people in India are infected, 6 to 10 times more than HIV. It spreads through infected reused needles, poorly tested transfused blood, sharing of instruments such as shaving blades or ear piercing needles, from a “carrier” mother during child birth, or unprotected sex with an infected person.
What makes Hepatitis B worrisome is its silent nature for many years during which the virus nibbles away at liver cells, leading ultimately to liver failure (cirrhosis) or liver cancer. These individuals feel quite normal for years. When symptoms do appear, much of he liver is already badly damaged!
Siddharth was lucky to be diagnosed before his liver was damaged; he was put on medications with which the infection is now well suppressed. His mother, who had vomited blood, was diagnosed to have cirrhosis from a prolonged infection with the virus. His younger brother also tested positive, both children having probably acquired it from her during child birth.
Screening test for Hepatitis B has become a standard recommendation during antenatal checkups so that the newborn of a “carrier” mother can be protected with immediate vaccination and Hepatitis B immunoglobulin injections just after birth. It is however hardly followed as facilities for testing are not available in most government hospitals, community and primary health centers. Routine vaccination of new borns with the vaccine (cost Rs 8/- per pediatric shot, 3 shots required for full protection, after 1 and 6 months of the 1st) has still not been included in the government vaccination schedule in most parts of India. More than 150 countries, some less economically developed than ours, have adopted it and brought down the infection rates drastically.
The vaccine used to be fairly expensive, costing Rs 1500/- for 3 adult doses. With many companies manufacturing it, the cost  for 3 doses has dived to around Rs 50/-, for a lifetime of protection. In spite of this, we found that only one third of school students in Lucknow had received the shots. The rates were as low as 0 to 6% in rural schools. The issue is less about cost now, and more about awareness. While the Gates and other foundations have helped spread awarenss about HIV infection, Hepatitis B, which infects and kills more than 10 times as HIV, is at large. HOPE Initiative, a Lucknow based organization, through its unique B-Rodh project, with support from Bristol Meyers Squibb (BMS) Foundation, is sending this message to 5 lac children and their families in Uttar Pradesh. You can become B-safe @Rs 50/- for your lifetime, certainly a worthwhile investment.
 As published in HT City ( Hindustan Times) dated 25 october, 2009.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Food Fads in Liver Disorders

By
In an attempt at trying to do well to those they love, spouses and parents often enforce diets on patients of liver diseases that often turn out to be detrimental. The commonest food fad is pale insipid boiled cabbage being doled out to nauseous patients suffering from hepatitis that makes them puke even more.  The liver, in a way, is a buzzing manufacturing unit that requires lots of energy to keep its multiple functions going. And it derives all this from the food we eat. During disease, such as during an attack of jaundice, when many of the liver cells get killed, the liver attemptsdamage control by trying to regenerate quickly. For its cells to multiply however, it requires a generous supply of energy that comes from carbohydrates, and protein, the building block for its cells and tissues. Boiled green vegetables unfortunately have neither of these. Hence the situation often progresses to that of a starved liver unable to recuperate due to cut-off food suppl...
2 comments
Read more

How do you like your Tea?

By
The way we drink our tea may not only reflect our taste and style, but our health as well. Tea drinking is around 4700 years old and had its origin in China. Leaves of the shrub Camellia sinensis (tea plant) were in use at that time as a remedy for wounds and diseases. With the legendary emperor Shenong brewing and drinking its extracts, tea drinking became a popular habit in this part of the world. The British, impressed with the brew and the customs that go with drinking it in China and Japan, tried to emulate and evolve a tea-drinking custom of their own, and soon “tea-time”became a familiar term across the globe. Every home or cafe seems to have its own flavour. The north Indian variety of “chay” is a glass of hot creamy milk (more cream as it gets more “special”) with lots of sugar and a lacing of  “tea liquor” of strong tea that grows on lower heights (Assam, Nilgiri, Sri Lanka etc). In contrast, the Chinese and Japanese prefer light green or jasmine tea without a drop of mi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Questions from a Doctor’s Life

By
There is hardly any person in Uttar Pradesh who has not heard of Dr D K Chhabra, a senior neurosurgeon, who died recently. Over the decades his expertise, pragmatic advice and popularity had broken the shackles of his narrow surgical field coming to be known as a “brain-specialist”and a genuine adviser for all health problems. I got to know him in 1987 when I joined the upcoming Sanjay Gandhi PG Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGI) in Lucknow as a young member of the faculty in Gastroenterology. He had moved from his alma mater the KG Medical College where he is still regarded as a legend. An omnipresent bachelor doctor living in the duty room readily available to help anybody anytime.He was tasked to heading and developing Neurosciences at SGPGI. He had an eye for detail and was tasked additionally by the director to set up not just his department, but the whole hospital, the building, equipment and the campus. DKC was a tall and handsome man who spoke little. But when he did inl...
1 comment
Read more