THE World Hepatitis Day is observed on July 28 every year, and this year is no exception. The theme this year is ‘Hepatitis Can’t Wait’.

Basically, hepatitis is inflammation of the liver. It is broadly categorised into five types: A, B, C, D and E. Hepatitis B and C are considered the most lethal ones.

Hepatitis is considered the seventh leading cause of death across the world. It is estimated that close to 71 million people are chronically infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV), causing 400,000 HCV-related deaths annually. As many as 80 per cent of HCV infections are reported in the developing countries which happen to have serious resource constraints.

Being an economically vulnerable state, Pakistan bears the second-largest HCV burden in the world, and had 7.5 million infected persons in 2015. There are chances that this ratio will scale up to 12.6 million by 2030 if adequate treatment measures are not taken.

Amid the Covid pandemic, hepatitis continues to claim thousands of lives every day. Due to the pandemic, healthcare focus and awareness activities regarding hepatitis have faced serious disruption worldwide, including Pakistan.

Moreover, patients with hepatitis are at a higher risk of getting the dreaded Covid infection.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has developed a Global Health Sector Strategy (GHSS) to eliminate viral hepatitis by 2030.

According to research led by the University of Bristol and published in The Lancet Global Health in 2020, a large investment of at least $3.9bn is required to meet the WHO’s goal for the elimination of hepatitis in Pakistan.

Though the government is doing a commendable job to ensure the availability of Covid vaccine, it needs to pay attention to hepatitis-care facilities that have seriously suffered due to the pandemic.

In this regard, a massive allocation of resources is needed to eliminate viral hepatitis from our midst. The measures needed include better screening capacity, re-screening of high-risk groups, and delivering medicines and vaccines.

All of these steps must be taken on an urgent basis because, as the theme this year says, Hepatitis Can’t Wait.

Javeriya Mahar
Hyderabad

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2021