Dear Editor
Through the columns of your esteemed daily I would like to draw the attention of the concerned authority about the plight of poor people infected from hepatitis disease in remote and rural areas. Hepatitis is endemic to different parts of our state, which demands immediate statewide surveillance for identification, and control of the disease. The govt. announces health benefits and promises to strengthen health care system but in remote areas, children and adults end up facing a life full of uncertainty because of poverty. Poverty has a devastating impact on their health and social well being. Though treatment for some forms of hepatitis are available but whether patients have enough money to pay for treatment is a different story.
I am a teacher serving in a school in the remote village of Sangchu in East kameng district. According to a recently held hepatitis test at our school, some students have been diagnosed as having hepatitis B. As all the students come from poor, farming families, majority of them lack access to treatment.
The parents could not afford medical treatment and if the infections become severe, it can be life threatening. Moreover this is the story of every child in all the villages across our state, where majority lacks access to life saving screening and treatment leading to their deaths at younger age.
Therefore, I appeal the government of A.P to find some policies and programmes to support the patients for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the aforementioned disease especially in inaccessible and remote areas.
Yours,
Nom Tamut