City Desk :
The disease hepatitis or jaundice, an inflammation of liver, is curable under modern diagnosis and treatment, while media has a big role to convey this message to the people in order to save many lives, many of home who die due to ignorance about it, hepatologists said here.
The liver experts said an estimated half a million (5 lakh) people die each year in Bangladesh due to hepatitis B and C infections that lead to liver cancer and liver cirrhosis, and the money spent for treatment of this disease could help construct a Padma Bridge in every five years.
According to the World Health Organization, between 17 and 20 crore people are affected with Hepatitis-C alone across the globe, while an estimated 20 lakh are infected with the virus each year in Bangladesh.
“The information about hepatitis is limited only within the medical community. But it is time to spread the information among the general masses. Otherwise, the benefit out of innovations could not be reaped,” said Professor Dr Quamrul Hasan Khan, Vice- Chancellor of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), at a roundtable in Jatiya Press Club. The programme was co-organized by the Communicable Disease Control Unit of DGHS, Association for the Study of Liver Diseases Bangladesh, Forum for the Study of Liver Bangladesh, and Viral Hepatitis Foundation to mark the World Hepatitis Day.
Professor Quamrul said media has to be involved in a proactive manner so that they can be made as an important stakeholder in the ongoing hepatitis elimination programme. Once media is involved, he said, hepatitis could be eliminated much ahead of the benchmark year 2030.
Dr AK Abdul Momen, immediate past Bangladesh’s permanent representative to the United Nations, said the chances of hepatitis, which spread mainly through drinking water, food, drug addictions and sexual contacts, were high in poor and low income countries. He dubbed this disease as a ‘silent killer’ and said people should be made aware of it as major public health intervention.
Dr. Foyez Ahmed Khandoker, Dr Ahmed Lutfal Mubin, Dr Mamun Al Mahtab, Dr Faruque Ahmed, Dr Fazal Karim and Dr Shaikh Mohammad Noor-E-Alam, among others, spoke on the occasion.
The disease hepatitis or jaundice, an inflammation of liver, is curable under modern diagnosis and treatment, while media has a big role to convey this message to the people in order to save many lives, many of home who die due to ignorance about it, hepatologists said here.
The liver experts said an estimated half a million (5 lakh) people die each year in Bangladesh due to hepatitis B and C infections that lead to liver cancer and liver cirrhosis, and the money spent for treatment of this disease could help construct a Padma Bridge in every five years.
According to the World Health Organization, between 17 and 20 crore people are affected with Hepatitis-C alone across the globe, while an estimated 20 lakh are infected with the virus each year in Bangladesh.
“The information about hepatitis is limited only within the medical community. But it is time to spread the information among the general masses. Otherwise, the benefit out of innovations could not be reaped,” said Professor Dr Quamrul Hasan Khan, Vice- Chancellor of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), at a roundtable in Jatiya Press Club. The programme was co-organized by the Communicable Disease Control Unit of DGHS, Association for the Study of Liver Diseases Bangladesh, Forum for the Study of Liver Bangladesh, and Viral Hepatitis Foundation to mark the World Hepatitis Day.
Professor Quamrul said media has to be involved in a proactive manner so that they can be made as an important stakeholder in the ongoing hepatitis elimination programme. Once media is involved, he said, hepatitis could be eliminated much ahead of the benchmark year 2030.
Dr AK Abdul Momen, immediate past Bangladesh’s permanent representative to the United Nations, said the chances of hepatitis, which spread mainly through drinking water, food, drug addictions and sexual contacts, were high in poor and low income countries. He dubbed this disease as a ‘silent killer’ and said people should be made aware of it as major public health intervention.
Dr. Foyez Ahmed Khandoker, Dr Ahmed Lutfal Mubin, Dr Mamun Al Mahtab, Dr Faruque Ahmed, Dr Fazal Karim and Dr Shaikh Mohammad Noor-E-Alam, among others, spoke on the occasion.
