Infection rate high among Injecting Drug Users
Kohima, September 22 (MExN): A State level workshop on ‘Hepatitis B and C virus’ (HBV and HCV) was conducted on September 21 at the conference Hall of the Directorate of Health and Family Welfare with the health officials of the Health Department, Government of Nagaland.
Maongwati Aier, IAS, Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, addressed the workshop as the guest of honour. Sharing concerns about the alarming rate of HCV infection recorded in some studies conducted in Nagaland, he mentioned that the rate was as high as 30% among Injecting Drug Users.
According to a press note, Regional Medical Research Centre of ICMR located in Dibrugarh, National AIDS Research Institute, Pune and Kripa Foundation was involved in this investigation carried out in 2005.
Also sharing the Integrated Bio-Behavioral Assessment (IBBA) study among Injecting Drug Users (IDUs) in 2006 and 2009 according to which the prevalence of HCV among IDUs in Phek stood at 5.4% (2006) to 8.7% (2009) and 16.7%(2006) to 20.8 %(2006) in Wokha, respectively.
“All these data underlined an expanding HCV epidemic in the Sate of Nagaland,” Aier said while lamenting about lack of awareness on the whole issue and suggested that the message has to reach the macro level and for which he urged the participants to become master trainers and conduct Training of Trainers (TOTs) to facilitate dissemination of information as widely as possible. On HBV vaccination, he mentioned that “it has to be made available at all Health settings and also to population groups who are most at risk.”
The workshop was chaired by Principal Director, Dr L. Watikala while Dr Samiran Panda, from NICED (ICMR) and Dr Saubhik Ghosh from Calcutta Medical College spoke on the transmission, disease burden and clinical aspects of HBV and HCV.
Topics such as Viruses – HBV & HCV, difference between HBV & HCV, challenges associated with Diagnosis and Treatment of HBV & HCV were presented by them.
Dr Panda discussed in details about the transmission dynamics of both the viruses and highlighted that while HBV is a DNA virus, HCV has RNA at its core. He further drove the points home that while HBV vaccine is available, no such vaccine against HCV exist in the market.
Dr Ghosh in his presentation spoke on different Genotypes of both the viruses and its implications with regard to disease course as well as treatment. During his presentation on ‘Diagnosis and Treatment on HBV & HCV’, he mentioned about the various types of management and treatment modalities that are currently available.
Regarding treatment of HCV, he mentioned that the era of Pegylated Interferon is phasing out with the coming in of new Directly Acting Antivirals (DAAs) like Sofosbuvir in combination with Ledipasvir or Daclatasvir. These combination therapies have shown cure rates ranging from 86% to 100% depending on the HCV genotypes and far greater chance of attaining Sustained Virological Response (SVR) compared to the Pegylated Interferon based therapy.
Representing the pharmaceutical companies, Sanjay Roy from Abbott and Pranab Kumar Sharma from Zydus Heptiza deliberated upon the facilities they would be able to offer under HCV treatment packages in Nagaland. They also discussed about currently available screening and treatment facilities in the State and how they could join hands with various stakeholders to boost it up. Both shared their enthusiasm to work with the Government of Nagaland to address the disease burden of HCV in the state.
The workshop was organized by Kripa Foundation-Project Sunrise in Collaboration with Health Department, Government of Nagaland, NSACS and FHI 360.
