One in three Bangladeshis suffers from liver disease

One in every three Bangladeshis is suffering from liver diseases, said an organisation of hepatologists in Bangladesh.  

Around ten million people in Bangladesh are suffering from either Hepatitis B or C and 40 million people who are suffering from fatty liver, experts said on Thursday.

But the costs of testing Hepatitis B and C viruses and the price of drugs for these infections were too high for common people in Bangladesh, they said at a conference at Sonargaon hotel in Dhaka.

Hepatology Society Dhaka, Bangladesh, organised the conference participated by some 2,000 doctors of home and abroad.

The experts also said that the awareness about Hepatitis A and E – which are spread through contaminated food, water and human waste, were low in Bangladesh.

These patients recourse to alternative medicines as physicians usually do not prescribe any specific medicines for such patients, they said.

Speaking on the theme of the conference ‘Current Trends in the management of liver disorders in Bangladesh’, liver expert Motahar Hossain said costs of investigations of Hepatitis B and C like HBV DNA and HCV RNA and drugs for those treatment were too high for common people in Bangladesh.

He said these tests should be made available at government hospitals at subsidised price.

Motahar said mass awareness about the spread of Hepatitis A and E were very low in Bangladesh.

‘Physicians usually do not prescribe any specific medicines for such patients but the patients believe that the doctors cannot treat jaundice,’ he said.

‘These patients recourse to alternative medicines as physicians usually do not prescribe any specific medicines for such patients,’ he said.

The society general secretary Shahinul Islam said Bangladesh is encountering the changing landscape of liver disease.

He said the society’s studies in recent times found that there were some 40 million fatty liver patients and 10 million Hepatitis B and C patients in Bangladesh and to manage the huge number of such patients, Bangladesh needs a liver institute and 1,000 liver experts

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net