Mahbubnagar tops in Hepatitis infection in Telangana: Survey

HYDERABAD: Hepatitis infection is highest in Telangana's Mahbubnagar district with 13.5% of the population under its grip, finds a year long study that is still underway since July last year.
The prevalence rate of Hepatitis disease, which mainly includes infection caused by Hepatitis A and C viruses, has been found to be particularly very high in Mahbubnagar villages including Eiza with infection rate of 20.34% followed by Tharoor village with 15.17% infection rate and Vavilalla village with 14.41% infection rate, a survey by Apollo hospital revealed.
In the year-long study led by research team headed by Dr K Somasekhar, senior consultant, gastroenterologist, Apollo hospitals, the district fared the worst as 2,251 individuals out of total 5,139 people in Telangana whose blood samples were screened, 304 people were found carrying Hepatitis viruses.
"The high prevalence in Mahabubnagar district may be because of usage of unsterilised needles as we found 95% needles that the individuals were found using, to be unsafe. The other reasons could be high incidence of tattooing and body piercing with infected instruments," said Dr K Somasekhar.
There are several other causes leading to infection from Hepatitis viruses among people in Telangana that includes consumption of contaminated drinking water, food and repeat use of a single filter for different kidney patients at dialysis centres.
This was officially stated by Telangana state health minister Dr C Laxma Reddy ahead of the launch of mass population based Hepatitis awareness and screening camps across twenty nine centers in three states of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka in the city by Apollo Hospitals and Grace Foundation on Saturday.
When it comes to most rampant form of Hepatitis virus infection, experts point towards Hepatitis A as more prevalent in Telangana.
"Hepatitis B appears to be less in Telangana compared to rest of India, but hepatitis C has very high prevalence compared to rest of India," added Dr K Somasekhar.
However, the survey found Hyderabad, Warangal, Khammam and Nizamabad districts having negligible prevalence of Hepatitis infection with only five cases (0.2%) reported positive out of 2,359 blood samples screened in eight locations in Hyderabad, six positive (4%) out of 144 samples in Khammam and zero case in 306 samples and 79 samples in Nizamabad and Warangal respectively.
So, what are best methods for diagnosis of Hepatitis infection?
"The diagnostic techniques used for detecting Hepatitis infection can use Rapid Immunochromatography, ELISA,(enzyme linked Immunoassay) ECLIA(Electro chemilumniscence Immunoassay)," said Dr E Bhavani, consultant microbiologist, Continental Hospitals, while advising health care workers, pregnant women and those exposed to a needle prick to get vaccinated.
For the record, Hepatitis infection comes with disatrous consequences with Hepatitis A & E viruses may lead to acute liver failure while Hepatitis B & C can lead to chronic liver failure.
Though preventive vaccines in the form of HBsAg for hepatitis B and AntiHCV for hepatitis C are available, those already confirmed positive are treated with several anti-viral drugs like Entecavir, Tenofovir, sofosbuvir, ledipasvir and declatasvir.