Bengal closer to Hep B elimination, says study
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While this has been achieved, health officials on World Hepatitis Day on Monday said the state is looking at meeting other benchmarks that will aid in eliminating Hepatitis by 2030.
Over the past few years, the state health department took up several measures for early intervention. These include screening pregnant mothers, administering the Hepatitis B vaccine at birth to newborns, and providing immunoglobulin to babies born to a mother who is a carrier of the virus.
Hepatitis is the inflammation of the liver, causing damage to the organ.
On Sunday, the state director of services, Swapan Saren, presented the current hepatitis scenario in the state, the intervention measures, the improvement, and suggested the way forward to achieve the elimination of the disease by 2030. "With the prevalence of 0.07% among children below five, we have touched one of the benchmarks of control of vertical transmission set by WHO.
The state is close to vertical transmission elimination indicators of Hep B.
We will be working on meeting other criteria," said public health specialist Pallav Bhattacharya, former state programme officer for the National Viral Hepatitis Programme.
According to officials, Bengal so far is the only state to have come out with such data. The national estimate of Hepatitis B prevalence in children below five is pegged at 1.14%.
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Health experts said that the chances of a Hepatitis B positive mother transmitting the virus to the newborn are as high as 90%.
"At present, all pregnant women attending govt health facilities are screened for hepatitis so we can prevent mother-to-child transmission by administering the vaccine and immunoglobulin for Hepatitis B. We are taking up various other measures to improve our achievement," said Saren.
In fact, Bengal is the first and perhaps the only state to start the project on the triple elimination of Hepatitis, syphilis, and HIV. On Monday, the Liver Foundation West Bengal, took to the digital platform to reach out to students of 23 schools in Bengal to raise awareness of viral Hepatitis.
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