Apollo Hospitals hosts Hepatitis Awareness Bicycle Ride, to raise awareness about Hepatitis!

Hyderabad, July 28th, 2019: Hepatitis Awareness Bicycle Ride, hosted by Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad, to raise awareness about Hepatitis, on the occasion of World Hepatitis Day – July 28th, was flagged off by Mr Y. Subramanyam, CEO, Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad on Sunday. Dr KS Soma Sekhar Rao and Dr Naveen Polavarapu, Sr. Consultant Medical Gastroenterologists, Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad, & Dr Manish C. Varma, Chief Transplant Surgeon, Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad participated in the awareness ride along with patients, doctors and 300 enthusiastic bicycle riders.

World Hepatitis Day is marked to celebrate the progress made in viral hepatitis elimination. It also serves as an opportunity for the general public, affected the community, medical professionals and policymakers to come together to asses and work with greater vigour for the elimination of the disease.

Viral hepatitis kills more than 1.34 million people each year, which is more than HIV/AIDs or Malaria. There is a cure for hepatitis ‘C’ and a vaccine along with effective treatment for hepatitis ‘B’, therefore the 4,000 deaths each day caused by viral hepatitis are entirely preventable, says Dr KS Soma Sekhar Rao, Consultant Gastroenterologist & Hepatologist, Apollo Hospitals. In 2016, every country in the world signed up to eliminate viral hepatitis by 2030, currently, only 12 countries are on track to do this, he adds.

Currently, 290 million people live with viral hepatitis completely unaware of it, one of the key reasons for this is lack of awareness about the disease. This global health crisis needs to be highlighted to help save lives and Many Livers, Dr Naveen Polavarapu, Consultant, Gastroenterologist and Transplant Hepatologist, Apollo Hospitals.

Telangana and Andhra Pradesh also have pockets of the high prevalence of both Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C. Encouraging Voluntary testing for everyone to know their status is the way out, says Dr Soma Sekhar Rao.