Over 58,000 Afghans suffer from hepatitis

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AT-KABUL: The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) on Monday, while marking World Hepatitis Day, said that over 58,000 people are suffering from hepatitis B and C throughout the country.

Hepatitis is a silent and dangerous disease, which is regrettably on a steady rise, to which more and more people are being infected, said the Minister of Public Health Ferozudin Feroz.

“Out of 12 million Afghans, after blood tests, 40,000 were infected with hepatitis-B and 18,000 others with hepatitis type C,” he said. The World Health Organization’s target is to curb hepatitis till 2030, a commitment to which the MoPH is also committed and struggles to move forwards.

“And at par with that benchmark, an anti-hepatitis campaign has been launched in 16 provinces including Kabul, Herat, Balkh, Kandahar, Nangarhar, Kunduz, Ghazni, Badakhshan, Kunar, Paktia, Helmand Parwan, Khost, Nimroz, Farah and Daikundi,” he said.

Around 5,000 people vaccinated against hepatitis-B last year, as well as 6,000 addicted people will be vaccinated this year, he underlined.