The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Strict administration of Hepatitis-B vaccination sought

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Wednesday, Aug 20, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Strict administration of Hepatitis-B vaccination sought

HYDERABAD: Medical experts have urged the government and professional bodies to sincerely administer Hepatitis- B vaccination as part of universal immunisation programme to ultimately eradicate the disease.

This was the consensus at a round-table on ‘Eradicating Hepatitis B: What’s been achieved and what remains to be done’. Well-known gastroenterologist Sethu Babu presided over the meet which was organised by Osmania Medical College Doctors’ Forum.

Since three per cent of the people were carriers of the virus in the country, the meet felt that screening for Hepatitis B should be made a must in all blood banks and susceptible groups, with better testing kits. It noted that the prevalence of Hepatitis B, which was around 10 per cent in Taiwan 25 years ago, came down to one per cent after the government included it in the universal immunisation programme.

Dr. Sethu Babu said that it might take at least 10 years for the disease to be eradicated in the country, if a similar programme was implemented.

President of the A.P. chapter of the Indian Academy of Paediatrics and Professor and Head, Department of Paediatrics, Gandhi Medical College P. Sudarshan Reddy said the best way to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the virus was to vaccinate the infant within 72 hours of birth.

Instead of the current method of giving three doses of the vaccine in the sixth, 10th and 14th weeks, it should be administered within 72 hours to prevent mother-to-child transmission. The incidence of the disease was one per cent among children, 50 per cent of it due to mother-to-child transmission.

K.I. Varaprasad Reddy, Managing Director, Shanta Biotechnics, said the government was not implementing Hepatitis B vaccination as part of universal immunisation while neighbouring countries Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal had already done so.

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