Speaking at MICROCON-2023, Mumbai microbiologist Dr Archana Pawar said dropout of identified hepatitis patients poses a threat as they may spread the infection to others in high-risk behavioral groups such as sex workers and Injection drug users. The Indian Association of Medical Microbiologists held a one-day national conference at King George’s Medical University (KGMU).
Presenting a study of more than 26,000 patients between January and June 2023, Dr Pawar said: “It is estimated that 90% of hepatitis B and 79% of hepatitis C infections remain undiagnosed. ” Dr. Pawar works at Lokmanya Tilak Municipal Medical College and General Hospital, Mumbai.
“India falls into the moderate prevalence group with hepatitis B prevalence ranging from 0.87% to 21.4% and hepatitis C prevalence ranging from 0.19% to 53.7%. This means that any dropout among identified hepatitis patients is a risk ,”she says.
She further shared that we found that only 20.84% of hepatitis B patients attended model treatment centers while 31.02% of hepatitis C patients attended model treatment centres.
“Checking dropouts requires regular feedback and tracking. If this approach is adopted for every identified/rolled patient, the dropout rate will be minimized,” said Dr. Sumit Rungta, Head, Department of Gastroenterology, KGMU.