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Qatar will mark World Hepatitis Day today by adopting the theme “Hepatitis: think again”. |
The Supreme Council of Health (SCH) has lined up a number of activities and programmes aimed at raising awareness about hepatitis, ways in which one can be infected and methods of treatment, how to live with chronic hepatitis and how to avoid damage to liver resulting from hepatitis infection.
Qatar is considered as among the pioneering countries when it comes to combating hepatitis, whether in terms of treatment or prevention efforts. It has adopted a number of preventive strategies, which include conducting routine tests for locals and expatriates to detect any potential infection, especially for travellers, premarital couples and pregnant women, as well as those in professions with exposure to a large number of people such as the medical profession and workers in the food industry.
Further, the government has provided the necessary vaccines for hepatitis types A and B and made it mandatory last year as part of the scheduled immunisation for children. In addition, such vaccinations are given free for both adult locals and expatriates, especially those travelling to areas with high infection rates. However, there is no vaccination for hepatitis C and efforts are rather focused on prevention.
