Awareness drive held on hepatitis

Hyderabad: The staff of Apollo Hospitals took to the road on bicycles to spread awareness on hepatitis. Y Subramanyam, CEO, Apollo Hospitals, Dr KS Soma Sekhar Rao and Dr Naveen Polavarapu and Dr Raghu, Consultant Medical Gastroenterologists along with 300 others participated.

Subramanyam said the serious consequences from hepatitis 'B' and 'C' like liver damage is entirely preventable and needs simple precautions. Every day, world over several people are losing their lives, purely because of the lack of awareness about this ailment, which is preventable and curable.

Viral hepatitis kills more than 1.34 million people each year, which is more than HIV/AIDs or Malaria. There is a cure for hepatitis 'C' and a vaccine along with effective treatment for hepatitis 'B', therefore the 4,000 deaths each day caused by viral hepatitis are entirely preventable, said Dr KS Soma Sekhar Rao, Consultant Gastroenterologist & Hepatologist.

Currently 290 million people live with viral hepatitis completely unaware of it and one of the key reasons for this is lack of awareness about the disease.