It is disconcerting to note that nearly ten million people in the country are infected with hepatitis B virus or hepatitis C virus. On the occasion of the World Hepatitis Day that was observed yesterday, Hepatology Society which conducted a study on the subject revealed this staggeringly high figure of hepatitis infection. Hepatology Society mentioned that around 325 million people living with viral hepatitis globally, of them nearly 10 million are Bangladeshis.

To state the obvious, if the government does not take effective measures now to contain this high prevalence of hepatitis B and C virus in the country, then it will worsen further to create a major health problem for the country, since people infected with the virus might develop liver cirrhosis and liver cancer, two fatal diseases. Therefore it is vitally important to make an early detection of the infection and for it, it is necessary to create awareness among all people that if they become carriers of the virus what catastrophic consequences the virus could become for them in the first place. Not only that, they can be transmitters of the virus to other people also.  

That is why consciousness about the infection of the virus holds the key. People have to know how they can be infected with the virus and when this can turn into a life-threatening disease for them. It is not only about hepatitis, in acute and chronic forms of all disease, consciousness of people plays a great role in both preventing and curing diseases.

For containing the spread of hepatitis infection, experts are of the opinion that it is necessary to initiate massive screening programmes and create linkage to care. In Bangladesh’s all public hospitals, it is immediately necessary to establish hepatitis screening facilities. It is an irony that the prevalence of viral hepatitis in Bangladesh is most among the poorer section of the population all over the country but the country’s Dhaka centric care for hepatitis is available for the rather richer patients only.

That is why it is vitally important to make available the facilities of detection and treatment of the disease in the rural areas. The drugs for treating infection of hepatitis are costly and it is the government that has to make available the drugs to patients in the market at low cost. The bottom line is: the prevalence of hepatitis in Bangladesh has to take in all seriousness.