Amitabh Bachchan to Promote Awareness About Hepatitis B

Hepatitis B is a viral infection caused by hepatitis B virus (HBV) which precisely spreads through body fluids and the bloodstream, mainly attacking the liver. Infecting around 240 million people with the highest rate in Asia and Africa, it is planned to be made aware of by India’s Health & Family Welfare Ministry. This socially virtuous step was initiated by Bollywood’s veteran star Amitabh Bachchan. He along with his Rajya Sabha membered wife Jaya Bachchan visited Union Minister JP Nadda’s residence to offer his iconic image for spreading awareness about the infection.

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Amitabh Bachchan plans to wipe out hepatitis B after polio

India’s polio-free standing was led by Bachchan ever since he joined hands with UNICEF in 2005. His active involvement via awareness programs and campaigns tied with other dynamics had proved lethal for the lethal infantile paralysis, and soon it was directed towards the country’s exit door. As for the current time, the megastar is really pushing on to progress in the campaigning against HBV.

 

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Before flying off to Delhi, he took his social thrill to Twitter: “The start of another mission – the awareness for Hepatitis B…meeting authorities to take this forward – like Polio & TB.” He had expressed his desire to eradicate hepatitis B on the micro-blogging platform at the end of last year too: “Wish to start a campaign on awareness of Hepatitis B… Met some committed doctors and shall strategize… Detect and cured asap!”

After having received support from the popular celebrity, Nadda showed gratitude tweeting, “Deeply impressed by humility and social commitment. Happy to inform that Shri @SrBachchan showed a keen interest in helping to create awareness on health issues,” Bachchan offered his services for awakening the public about tuberculosis too. “I thank Shri @SrBachchan for offering his support to the health ministry for creating awareness on health issues especially Hepatitis B and TB.”

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WHO underlines its first ever guidelines for hepatitis B treatment

While most of the underprivileged and low-to-middle income nations have been majorly struck by hepatitis B infection, witnessing to nearly 6,50,000 deaths per year, WHO’s Global Hepatitis Programme has laid down some key guidelines:

  • Cirrhosis treatment to be prioritized since it marks as the most complex and developed stage of liver disease
  • Determine “who needs treatment” by assessing the current stage of liver disease via a few uncomplicated, non-invasive tests
  • Put early detection of cancer into action through frequent monitoring via simple tests in order to examine the workability of on-going treatment and see if it could be stopped, if required
  • Treat chronic hepatitis B with the help of tenofovir or entecavir – two highly effective and safe medications

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Programme’s leader Dr. Stefan Wiktor said, “These new guidelines, which give treatment recommendations that rely on simple, inexpensive tests, will help clinicians make the right decisions.” As per the statistical data of National Center for Disease Control (NCDC), approximately 1,00,000 Indians lose life due to the infection out of 10,00,000 risked ones each year.

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In the circumstance that some physicians are dubious about the cost-efficiency of the two drugs recommended by WHO, Dr. Geeta Billa, a gastroenterologist, said, “The treatment of hepatitis B in India is cheaper than in the western countries but the WHO indicating the two drugs as inexpensive is not entirely true.”

Infants exposed to HBV have matured immune systems

A majority of the 300 million HBV infection cases in Asia are detected at birth. It is relatively found that exposure to HBV infection could trigger or rather boost the process of immune system maturation of infants. This in turn could poise their bodies to better forestall or restrain bacterial infection occurring in the early stage of life. However, conservatively, the neonates’ immaturity of immune system is thought to be exploited by the virus to institute unrelenting infection.

On the other hand, contrary to the current notion, Emerging Infectious Diseases Program (EID)’s Professor Antonio Bertoletti at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School (Duke-NUS) presented that HBV exposed neonatal immune systems effectively respond to bacteria via the episode of ‘trained immunity’. After investigating the immune cells of HBV positive mothers’ cord blood, Prof. Bertoletti and his team stated that both adaptive and innate immune cells were found to be more mature and active than those of the cord blood of healthy mothers.

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This drastically opposed the on-going guidelines for HBV infection treatment from international liver associations. Precisely, the guideline of immune-tolerance to HBV in young patients, suggesting that their body cannot react to treatment and have no defensive response to the infection, was finely conflicted. Taking it further, professor’s findings which are planned to extend to the examination of HBV infection’s impact on pediatric patients and young adults will help to chart treatment guidelines for ages 2-30.

Learning about hepatitis B

Hepatitis B is a contagious viral infection which could be chronic or acute. Chronic hepatitis is a long-term disease which could lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer whereas acute hepatitis lasts for a short period of time and gets healed. Having said that, the infection could be reversed if it is detected within treatable range.

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How is the infection spread?

  • Shared drug-injection equipment such as syringe, needle, etc.
  • Pregnancy (infection passed to newborns via HBV positive mothers)
  • Direct contact with open sores or blood of infected individuals
  • Multiple sex partners or sex with infected partner
  • Shared daily use items like tooth brush and razor

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Who are the risked people?

  • Hemodialysis patients
  • Health care professionals exposed to infected blood
  • STD patients
  • Homosexuals
  • Infants born from infected mothers
  • Sex makers with multiple partners

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What are the symptoms?

  • Abdominal pain
  • Loss of appetite
  • Dark urine
  • Fever
  • Joint pain
  • Fatigue
  • Jaundice
  • Vomiting
  • Nausea
  • Bowel movements (clay-colored)

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How can the infection be prevented?

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