No Hepatitis-B death in Kashmir: Health minister

There has been no death so far due to Hepatitis-B in the Kashmir division, state health minister Bali Bhagat said today.
Bhagat was replying to a calling attention motion moved by MLC Sajjad Ahmad Kichloo in the Legislative Assembly.
"Two deaths have been reported in Jammu division so far and the documentation process is going on in this regard to authenticate it," said Bhagat.
In the past, the epidemic of Hepatitis-B broke out in two villages of Kashmir Province in Kokernag area adjacent to the Warwan valley, namely Takiya Magam and Sundbrari, due to unsafe injection practices, Bhagat said.
"The whole population of this belt has been screened by the Health Department and 2,034 persons have been registered for treatment of Hepatitis-B," he said, adding 928 persons out of them have been treated with the latest drug regimen for free.

"However, it is likely that old cases of Warwan would have contracted the Hepatitis-B virus through unsafe practices and thus they were vaccinated as a precautionary measure," he said.

Regarding the incidents of Hepatitis-B reported in Jammu's Kishtwar, Bhagat informed that a team of doctors was sent to the area on December 19, 2017, to investigate the cases.
"The team observed that there were 27 cases of Hepatitis-B having rapid test positive and confirmed by ELJSA test as per the record available in NTPHC Inshan," he said.
"Also there were 7 cases of Hepatitis-B who were tested positive by Rapid Test detected by Medical Team," he added.

MLC Firdous Ahmad Tak also raised a supplementary question and demanded proper treatment to get rid of the epidemic. Bhagat assured Tak that proper medical team with medicare facility would be sent to the area and all the societal heads would be included to raise the awareness among masses.