HT Correspondent
Dimapur, Aug 26: A 10-member team from the National Viral Hepatitis Control Programme (NVHCP) under the National Health Mission, led by NVHCP deputy commissioner Dr Sandhya Kabra, physically visited all the districts of Nagaland to address the growing hepatitis epidemic issue in the State from August 21 to August 25.
The visit of the team was aimed at supporting the progress and development of NVHCP in Nagaland. With the growing threat of hepatitis C cases in particular among high-risk groups besides Hepatitis B morbidity, the State, as well as the Centre, has a heavy burden to address the issue with great concern to minimise the deadly consequences of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma with the SDG goal of eliminating hepatitis by 2030.
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During the exit meeting of the NVHCP team held in Kohima on August 25, NVHCP deputy commissioner Kabra said the programme was conceptualised through consultative process involving all stakeholders, technical experts and community.
While pointing to the Nagaland management information system (MIS) data profile, she said 11 districts, out of 16, have registered in the NVHCP-MIS portal and that all these districts have functional Hepatitis C and Hepatitis B care units. She also stressed the need for viral hepatitis management units in the sub-division and district levels.
Nagaland Health and Family Welfare secretary Asangla Imti thanked the NVHCP team for its visit to the State and reaching out to all the districts to address the issue. She said the presentation of the data profile collected from the districts of the State by the team was like a report card.
Imti said the issues pointed out will be looked at and sorted out from the recommendations suggested by the team. She also spoke about the technical problems of the State and the shortage of manpower due to creation of new districts which she said can be rationalised.
She asked the State Health and Family Welfare department to converge to work together for the districts and sub-divisions.
Health and Family Welfare department principal director Dr Vikato Kinimi pointed out that the people of the State are ignorant about hepatitis problem. He said the issue can be tackled in the districts and solved by integrating more programmes with the Health and Family Welfare ministry.
The Health and Family Welfare department assured full support to create awareness on hepatitis. It said it will ensure that services are available at all levels of healthcare in some priority areas to scale up the NVHCP implementation across the State.
The department said integration with various vertical health programmes will be the core agenda for all planning under it.
