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It has been estimated that India has around 40 million HBV carriers. About 15–25% of HBsAg carriers are likely to suffer from cirrhosis and liver cancer and may die prematurely. Infections occurring during infancy and childhood have the greatest risk of becoming chronic. Of the 2.6 Crore (26 million) infants born every year in India, approximately 10 Lakhs (1 million) run the life-time risk of developing chronic HBV.
Hepatitis B vaccination coverage of children is low—only 34% for the birth dose within 24 hours after birth (62% for institutional deliveries) and 71% for hepatitis B 3. We immunise 6-16 years old children who don’t qualify govt immunisation program.
Raising awareness, promoting partnership and mobilizing resources
There is a very low level of awareness about viral hepatitis viruses, routes of transmission, risk factors and their impact on human health in the Indian community among health providers and policy makers.
Hepatitis continues unabated as a “silent” infection. Most affected individuals do not know that they are infected with viral hepatitis B or C. Most do not have any visible symptoms in the early stages of the disease and hence do not feel the need for intervention.
There is no national comprehensive policy for hepatitis that addresses support and management once an individual is detected as having hepatitis B or C.
In order to address above problem, we proposed to undertake following activates with your kind support;
- To create awareness, education and knowledge among the people on Hepatitis B and C through IEC (Information, Education and Communication) and BCC (Behavioural Change Communication) programmes
- Identification of drop out under UIP & private hospital vaccination. Household survey to be conducted for 100% households & vaccination cards are checked for proper vaccination schedule & dropouts are identified.
- Organise Health Awareness Program- An intensive campaign for awareness generation will be held using different method such as health awareness camp, meeting, events, street plays one to one, big events and sensitization with various groups of the society.
- Conduct educational campaigns for stigma reduction on Viral Hepatitis.
- Partner with the media with relevant technical content.
