World Hepatitis Day

Observed on the 28th of July every year, the World Hepatitis Day is essentially celebrated to spread awareness about Hepatitis, which is a group of many infectious diseases namely Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, Hepatitis D and Hepatitis E. The main aim of the day is to spread awareness about the disease so that the preventions, diagnosis and cure of the disease become easier. Hepatitis affects close to a hundred million people across the world and causes chronic and acute symptoms also leads to the death of more than 1.4 million people every year! Marked by the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Hepatitis Day is one of the eight official global public health campaigns apart from World Immunization Week, World Health Day, World Blood Donor Day, World AIDS Day, World Malaria Day, World No Tobacco Day and World Tuberculosis Day. On May 2010, in the 63rd World Health Assembly, World Hepatitis Day was recognised globally as an endorsement that would throw its primary focus on awareness raising efforts nationally as well as internationally. The date of the celebration was thus changed from 1st October to 28th July in order to celebrate the contributions of Nobel Laureate Baruch Samuel Blumberg who discovered the Hepatitis B vaccine and who was born that very date. Now the day is celebrated across almost 100 countries and awareness is raised through many mediums like free screenings, talk shows, vaccination drives and the likes. Spreading awareness about the disease is of utmost importance since there is a majority of people who are suffering from this disease. By making sure that people are aware of the implications of the disease, we will be able to prevent, diagnose and treat the problem in time and save many lives in the process. So go ahead and get yourself and your baby vaccinated against Hepatitis. After all, prevention is better than cure!