The silent ravages of hepatitis  

Thanks to regular awareness campaigns, educated, and even moderately educated, people are seen becoming conscious of the dreadful disease of hepatitis. In the remote Bangladesh villages, the disease is still known as jaundice or 'kamela'. This ignorance has for centuries kept scores of quacks and faith healers open to the thriving business of healing people suffering from the disease. Times have changed, and people now know bits of the medical facts about hepatitis. A few even know about the types of the malady, and which lead to deaths. Normally, the common types of hepatitis get cured after long rests coupled with drinking of adequate water and non-spicy foods.

Like in many less advanced countries, Bangladesh has also emerged as a classical case of belittling the scourge of the ravages caused by hepatic diseases. Policy makers and health authorities in different times have hesitated to accept the harsh truths about hepatitis. This has, in fact, invoked the ostrich syndrome. Against this backdrop, the revelation at a recent international hepatology conference in Dhaka homed in on some unsavoury truths. The Hepatology Society organised the meet, the 5th of its kind. According to the findings of a survey conducted by the Society, 1 in every 3 persons in Bangladesh suffers from one or another kind of liver ailments. What appeared appalling from the account was the fact that about 10 million persons were now victims of chronic hepatitis; while another 40 million were suffering from impaired liver functions like 'fatty liver'. Chronic hepatic diseases include mainly the virtually fatal Hepatitis B and C. These dreadful ailments eventually lead to deadly liver cirrhosis, liver cancer and liver failure. A most frightening aspect of these types of hepatitis is many people are unaware that they are carrying the viruses of the disease. Many of them look physically healthy, lead a normal life and show few signs of ailments. They are termed carriers and unwittingly infect other people through blood contact and 'close intimacy'. In a few respects they are akin to the nature of AIDS.

The conference has highlighted a serious problem afflicting the hepatitis scenario in the country. Like with the effective treatment of many other dreadful diseases, hepatitis also suffers from a common drawback. The shortcoming comes in the form of an acute dearth of liver-specialist doctors. As has been observed by many, the country urgently needs a liver institute for producing experts. Given the insidious presence and fast spread of different types of hepatitis, the need for sufficient numbers of physicians and liver transplant surgeons needs no elaboration. At the terminal stage of a liver patient, the organ's transplantation overseas remains the only ray of hope. It's a highly expensive treatment and turns out to be a chimera of sorts for the low and middle-income people. A state-of-the-art transplant centre manned by expert surgeons can ease the situation a lot.

That hepatitis is a debilitating disease has been widely acknowledged for long. Not to speak of the deadly hepatitis B or C, even its polluted water-borne types leave a sapping impact on the patients. Even neglecting an apparently innocuous E virus may invite dozens of unforeseen health hazards. An alarming aspect of the conventional hepatitis is its capability to incapacitate an otherwise energetic person. Given these terrible aspects, the impact of both fatal and common hepatitis on the country's human resources could one day reach a formidable level. As has been said and repeated several times, hepatitis has no sure cure. The only difference it can make is through all-out preventions. The general people need to be made aware of the disease's pros and cons. What keeps hepatitis apart is its socio-economic fallout. For it drains out the vitalities of a person filled with physical and creative energy.

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