Apollo Gleneagles Hospital spreads awareness on Hepatitis, Liver Transplant and Organ Donation

Ambar Bhattacharya, abptakmaa, Kolkata, 30th July 2019 : 28th July was the World Hepatitis Day, Appolo Gleneagles Hospital Kolkata spread awareness on Hepatitis, Liver Transplant and Organ Donation. nflammations of the liver due to infections caused by various viruses namely Hepatitis A B C D and E result in viral hepatitis. It’s a major public health concren infecting millions of people annually. Some of these even cause hepatocellular carcinoma, liver cirrosis and other fatalities. Currently it is estimated that 1 in 3 people in the world have been infected by either HBV or HVC. Approximately 200 million people are infected annually with hepatitis C or B. Hepatitis B currently there is a vaccine but it is a severe disease than hepatitis C. In hepatitis C as new medicines are applied and after 10 years hepatitis C will not be found. In endemic regions, more than 90% children get infected by HAV by age of 10 years. Viral hepatitis resuls in around 1.4 million deaths each year. Prevention and control stratigies for viral he[atitis include raising awareness through public education, vaccination, blood transfusion safety strategies, early diagnosis and effective medical support.

It is estimated that approximately 25000 people per year require liver transplants in India, yet only 1000 to 1500 transplants take place. Apollo Gleneagles Hospital Kolkata is one of the few centres in eastern India that is running a successful liver transplantation programme with 100% success rate for donors and 80% success rate for recipients. In this context they invited few patients who got transplanted along with the donors. Srijani Halder was suffering from Hepatitis A 5 years back when her mother Bobita Halder donated her liver, now she is back to her real life. Piyali Saha had a bilirubin of 80 mgs when her mother Ratna Saha donated the liver. The same happened with Biswarup Chatterjee a teacher and Manoj Hela. They got the liver from organ donations.

Currently 80% of liver transplants happen from living donors while 20% are cadaver transplants. Organ transplantation is one of the greatest medical marvels of the 20th century, which has prolonged and improved lives of many worldwide. At present, the cadaver transplant rate in India stands at around 0.34 per million, which is extremely low when compared to developed countries. And to combat the need of liver transplants the future figure has to be 80% cadaver donation and 20% live donation.

In a panel discussion Dr Mahesh Kr Goenka, Dr Joy Basu, Dr Indrajit Tripathi, Dr Rama Prasad Goswami, Dr P K Sethi, Dr Debasish Banerjee, Dr Sourav Koley, Shruti Mohta and Dr Chandrasis took part where Dr Mahesh Goenka said, Hepatitis is preventable by increasing awareness, sanitation, vaccination, early diagnosis and proper treatment. But for patients who need liver transplantation we need to create awareness so that the rate of cadaver donation increases. Even today’s time people back out from cadaver donation because of lack of awareness, religious beliefs and superstitions, which need total eradication from our society. Publicity : Ad Factor.