Verbal duel between activist and health official on World Hepatitis Day

Kohima, July 28 (EMN): The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has launched the National Viral Hepatitis Control Program (NVHCP) in New Delhi marking World Hepatitis Day, on Saturday. The objective is to eliminate viral hepatitis by 2030 and reduce morbidity and mortality from India due to viral hepatitis. This would be done by providing free drugs and diagnostics facilities for hepatitis B and C at all government hospitals. While welcoming the move, state’s health activists are, however, dismayed that Nagaland did not make it to the initial list of the NVHCP because the state’s policymakers reportedly failed to support the concern at the national level. Likewise, the National Health Mission (NHM) in Nagaland reportedly failed to propose any such programme in their annual action plan (AAP). Speaking at a programme marking the day in Kohima, the former president of Nagaland Users’ Network (NUN) Ketho Angami lamented that despite Viral Hepatitis, particularly Hepatitis C becoming an urgent health concern, the state’s department of Health had failed its patients by not providing any sort of treatment or care support. “We continue to count dead bodies, and those few lucky ones who are able to undergo treatment also had to undergo many hardships due to lack of improper testing and diagnosis facilities and also having to pay for the exorbitant price for their treatment,” he said. He expressed concern that some doctors were prescribing ‘wrong treatment regimens and charge unaffordable prices simply benefitting the pharmaceutical companies.’ “In spite of our advocacy and the government being aware of the high disease burden, the health department has just been a mute listener and for which, the IDSP (Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme) and NHM have to be held accountable for the increase of new infections and every HBV and HCV related deaths,” Angami said. “Alongside, we started creating awareness for HBV and HCV prevention and treatment without any support from the government or any funders, we started advocating with the generic pharmas for price reduction and have started to put people on treatment, we went on to understanding more of the Central and state government’s initiatives by filing RTI at NCDC, NACO, NSACS and health department. We see people waiting to be put on treatment, but along the way, we also see people dying,” he lamented, while asserting that the state cannot ‘continue to let people die.’ Angami argued that the state government needed to provide healthcare because it was a ‘subject with Article 21 of the Constitution of India guaranteeing protection of life and personal liberty to every citizen.’ “Failure of a government hospital to provide a patient timely medical treatment results in violation of the patient’s right to life. Similarly, the court has upheld the state's obligation to maintain health services,” he reminded. If the state continues to shun the gravity of viral hepatitis and the burden it was causing on the citizens, health activists and related NGOs will take up legal course to pursue the people’s rights, he warned. “We will/may soon have to meet in the court,” he told the department officials present. Taking about issues regarding procurement of medicines, the director of Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Tokuho Chishi, said there were specific requirements such as the temperature conditions in which the drugs should be stored etc. He said doctors were in no way involved in manufacturing drugs, and denied the allegation that doctors were involved in making a business out of medicines. Chishi asserted that the problem with the cost of medicines arises due to the absence of a drug regulating authority. On the other hand, he implied that pharmaceutical companies have a huge influence. Therefore, he said, instead of crucifying the department, the NGOs should also try to approach the prime minister’s office as the prime minister has the power to change the existing system. With regard to lack of data, he said the World Health Organisation was also to blame as nowhere in the Sustainable Development Goals is hepatitis mentioned. Speaking on treatment issues of viral hepatitis in Nagaland, Dr. Kejavisa Savino of Oking Hospital Kohima said lack of support system and high treatment cost continue to be a major concern. He felt that much has been done for other health issues such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV and AIDS, and viral hepatitis needs to be battled on similar footing. Stating that people, both young and old, should get educated on the facts of hepatitis and get vaccinated early, he also advocated that the topic should be included in the school curriculum as well. The programme was jointly organised by Nagaland State AIDS Control Society (NSACS), NUN and Kripa Foundation. The NVHCP aims to support and scale-up hepatitis prevention, testing, treatment and care services; treat a minimum of 3 lakh hepatitis C cases over a period of three years; will benefit over five crore people; provide laboratory testing and management of viral hepatitis with a de-centralised approach under the umbrella of National Health Mission and scaled up to Health and Wellness Centres in a phased manner.