Nagaland: Committee urges awareness on free hepatitis treatment

Our Correspondent

Kohima, Aug.12 (EMN): Alleging that some doctors and private hospitals are exploiting the hepatitis patients by charging huge sums of money in order to earn massive profit, the state steering committee under National Viral Hepatitis Control Programme (NVHCP) has urged upon the concerned department to create awareness on the free treatments and the correct price of medicines.

This was made known during a state steering committee meeting under NVHCP held on August 12 in the conference hall of the commissioner and secretary of Health at Nagaland Civil Secretariat.

During the meeting, the Committee members stressed on how the public should be made aware of the free treatment facilities for hepatitis patients, provided by the government. Various health activists from the Kripa Foundation, Ark Foundation and Nagaland Users Network constituted the state steering committee, stated an update from the Health department.

Delivering the keynote address, Dr. Thorhusie Katiry, NHM mission director, stated that there are five kinds of hepatitis namely A,B,C,D and E, of which hepatitis B and C are the two main types responsible for 96% overall hepatitis related mortality.

He informed that the government of India launched NVHCP with an aim to provide free-of-charge screening, diagnosis, treatment, counseling, service to all especially to people belonging to high risk groups. Dr. Katiry stated that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued guidelines to achieve hepatitis elimination by 2030 through reduction of hepatitis B and C by 40% and reduce death from liver cancer by 50% by 2025.

During the meeting, the state steering committee members have commented on the unavailability and non-functioning of certain CBNAAT and Trunaat machines in remote areas of the state. In this regard, the members have urged the government to install those facilities. They have also appealed to the state government to bring about the various schemes available under NHM in the state.

During the meeting, Dr. M Nukshisangla Jamir, NVHCP state nodal officer, presented an overview of NVHCP and presented its organisational setup and activities.

It mentioned that the NVHCP was launched by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, government of India, in July 2018 with an aim to prevent and control viral hepatitis in India and to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.3, which aims at ending viral hepatitis by 2030.