Int. Hepatology Conference highlighted disease burden in the country

Recently International Hepatology Conference organised by the Hepatology Society was held in Dhaka. Eminent experts across the world attended the conference.
Although liver diseases pose a big problem to the country’s health, many of these are preventable by improving personal hygiene and sanitation. Creating mass awareness is therefore very important.
Both hepatitis B and hepatitis C are major health concerns for us. 5-8% of our population are infected with hepatitis B virus while less than 1% suffers from hepatitis C. Every year about 1,50,000 newly born children are infected with hepatitis B and at least 20,000 to 23,000 die as a consequence annually.
There is dire need of safe blood transfusion as hepatitis B and C viruses are transmitted through blood and blood products and as no vaccine against hepatitis C is available yet.