Media sensitisation workshop held, more priority to Hep C treatment stressed

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Jun 15 : A media sensitisation workshop under the theme 'Making diagnosis & management of Hepatitis - C a priority', was held at Classic Hotel today, under the aegis of Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND).
YRGCARE's AK Srikrishnan, Country Programme Manager (HCV) FIND, ER Babu, YRGCARE State Coordinator Ksh Basanta Kumar, Joint Director (Targeted Interventions) Manipur State AID Control Society, Dr Abhiram Mongjam poke during the workshop on various topics.
During the event, Dr Abhiram Mongjam said that  in November 2017, the State Government signed an MoU with YRGCARE under the guidance and leadership of Health Minister L Jayantakumar and following the signing of the MoU, the Health Minister launched Project Headstart of Viral Hepatitis-C free treatment on  December 31 last year with treatment finally beginning from January this year.
Stating that YRGCARE, State Government and FIND jointly implemented the Hepatitis-C flagship programme, he said that YRGCARE and FIND have completely screened 3106, out of the targeted 4000 people, in Imphal and Churachandpur till now.
Out of the said number, 708 have been confirmed and are under treatment. 205 have completed the 3 months treatment.
Dr Abhiram Mongjam continued that it takes around 12 weeks for YRGCARE and FIND to determine whether the virus is responding to the treatment or not etc, from the people selected from Imphal West, Imphal East and Churachandpur.
The report of the programme is still awaited and it will most likely arrive in August, he said adding that the treatment is mostly aimed at people in whom sustained behaviour change is seen.
Stating that the success rate of the programme is not yet calculated for YRGCARE and FIND, he said that the success rate will become clear from August and September which will show what is the cure rate and the failure rate etc.
YRGCARE and FIND will also analyse why and where the programme failed, he added.
He continued that as per the data of JNIMS Blood Bank from March last year to February this year, Hepatitis C is present in 1.1 percent of the blood donors.
This is a high percentage but the percentage of HIV has reduced and it is just 0.2 percent of the blood donors, he informed adding that this shows that Hep-C also needs to be prioritised, not only HIV.
Dr Abhiram Mongjam explained that currently, 7.2 percent of the Injecting Drug Users in Manipur have HIV and this average is really high when compared to the Country.
However, it can be said that the figure is a little less compared to the time when HIV cases began cropping up in the State as at that time, the IDUs percentage was 76 percent.
On the other hand, he said that based on hospital reports, it has been learned that the rate of HIV transmission through sexual routes is  on the rise and added that the HIV cases in females are also increasing.
He further explained Hepatitis B and C is transmitted through the sexual route which is also linked with HIV control programme.
Even though HIV transmission due to sharing of needles etc is low, the rate of Hepatitis transmission is high, he said and stressed on the importance of the health care providers, nurses, paramedical workers, lab technicians etc to be alert at all times.