Hepatitis B Project

In India, there are an estimated 40 million Hepatitis B virus carriers. About 10 million of these are expected to die from Hepatitis B cirrhosis. One out of 25 million children born in India run the lifetime risk of developing chronic HBV infection. Every year, 600,000 – 1.2 million deaths result from people developing life-threatening liver illnesses and complications including cirrhosis, liver failure and liver cancer.

The hepatitis B immunization project is aimed at prevention of Hepatitis B infection in children by active vaccination of school going children in rural and tribal areas. A number of schools and residential schools have been targeted to cover a large number of children. One thousand children have been covered so far in the in this project. This pilot project is first of its kind in India and its success will help in implementing it on a larger scale.