India has highest Hepatitis B infection & Hepatitis C infection: WHO

Why in News?
• According to the Global Hepatitis Report 2024 released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) ,India is one of the countries with the highest burden of viral hepatitis with 2.9 crore people living with Hepatitis B infection and 0.55 crore living with Hepatitis C infection.
• It is an infection that causes liver inflammation, damage and may lead to liver cancer.
Key facts:

• There were over 50,000 new Hepatitis B cases and 1.4 lakh new Hepatitis C cases reported in 2022. And these infections killed 1.23 lakh people in India in 2022 as per the report.
• Both infections are transmitted from mother to child during delivery, during transfusion of blood that hasn’t been screened properly, during contact with the blood of an infected person or while sharing of needles by drug users.
• Since hepatitis B can be prevented through vaccination, the report highlights the need to ensure coverage. Hepatitis C is curable with medicines.
WHAT ARE HEPATITIS B AND C?
• Hepatitis B is known to cause acute infection with nausea, vomitting and yellowing of the eye and skin for several weeks. Liver failure happens in severe cases.
• The chronic infection can lead to scarring of the liver called cirrhosis and increase the risk of liver cancer. There are medicines to slow the progress of the virus in chronic cases.
• Many people with the hepatitis C virus don’t have symptoms or know they are infected. Those who do develop symptoms two to 12 weeks after exposure report yellow skin or eyes, loss of appetite, nausea, stomach ache, fever, dark urine, light-coloured stool, joint pain and exhaustion.