Big drive planned against hepatitis B

Some 36,000 children of GVMC schools to be vaccinated. The department started Project Habeeb, named after the father of gastroenterology in AP C.M. Habeebullah, four years ago with the aim of creating a hepatitis B-free Visakhapatnam and so far 18,000 had been vaccinated.

After completing the task of administering nearly 700 inmates and staff of the Central Jail here with a three-dose hepatitis B vaccine on Monday, which also marked the World Hepatitis Day, Department of Gastroenterology of Andhra Medical College and King George Hospital is thinking of plans to vaccinate nearly 36,000 pupils of GVMC schools.

“A sum of Rs. 20 lakh is needed to administer the vaccine to the GVMC schoolchildren. We can take care of the logistics part of it if the GVMC could provide the vaccine. Once the vaccination is completed this group of children would be protected against the dreaded hepatitis B,” says HoD of Gastroenterology of AMC and KGH P. Murali Krishna.

The department started Project Habeeb, named after the father of gastroenterology in AP C.M. Habeebullah, four years ago with the aim of creating a hepatitis B-free Visakhapatnam and so far 18,000 had been vaccinated. It started with immunising students of AMC, doctors, paramedical and other staff of AMC and KGH and later all the doctors and staff of the government hospitals in the city and some private hospitals were vaccinated. Project Habeeb also covers pupils of welfare hostels and slum-dwellers.

Tough task “The task is difficult but we are somehow managing it,” he says.

Every Tuesday 100 people are being given the vaccine. Central Jail was the latest place where the vaccination was done. According to WHO, it is 100 times more infectious than HIV and may lead to liver cancer at a later stage.