NLFB observes WHO World Hepatitis Day on Saturday

The World Health Organisation or WHO and the World Hepatitis Alliance or WHA are observing World Hepatitis Day on Saturday.

All member states, including Bangladesh, are conducting different hepatitis awareness events on the occasion, the National Liver Foundation of Bangladesh said in a statement.

The campaign hopes to eliminate hepatitis or bring viral hepatitis under control by 2030.

Currently 325 million men, women and children across the world are living with viral hepatitis. According to the statement, approximately 300 million are unaware that they have the disease.

This huge undiagnosed population are at high risk of developing liver cirrhosis and liver cancer and are silently transmitting and infecting others in various ways. Around 1.34 million deaths occur every year due to viral hepatitis. 

“Worldwide, 300 million people are living with viral hepatitis unaware,” the UN said.

“Without finding the undiagnosed and linking them to care, millions will continue to suffer, and lives will be lost. On World Hepatitis Day, Jul 28, we call on people from across the world to take action, raise awareness and join in the quest to find the ‘missing millions’.”

The WHA is launching the three-year “Find the Missing Millions” global awareness-raising advocacy campaign to identify this population, which will minimise the disease burden and contribute to the 2030 elimination target while saving an estimated 7.1 million lives. 

In Bangladesh different studies have showed that about 4 to 5 percent of the population have hepatitis B and about 1 percent have hepatitis C.  It is estimated that around 10 million people in Bangladesh have been affected by the viruses.

The NLFB conducted a phase of the “Find the Missing Millions Campaign” campaign at Rangamati Government College and other places in Rangamati on Jul 15, conducting free hepatitis B and C screenings among 810 people of the Chakma tribe.

It was alarming as most of the people screened did not know about viral hepatitis, the NLFB said in its statement. Hepatitis B was detected in 40 (4.93 percent) of the screened people and hepatitis C was found in 2 (less than 0.24 percent) of the screening group.

NLFB will also conduct free hepatitis B & C screening in its office on World Hepatitis Day along with several other awareness building activities.