Delhi Health Minister Satendar Jain said on Saturday that Delhi Government is planning to make mandatory free screening services and treatment available of hepatitis B and C for pregnant women to ensure timely treatment and for this ‘mohalla clinics’ staff will be trained.

Jain participated in the 24th Hepatitis day at the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences. He  released a report on “Hepatitis Awareness Activities.”

The Minister explained that Hepatitis C is easily treatable with a 12 week medicine course. Hepatitis B can also be prevented. “The two ways by which Hepatitis B spreads is from expecting mother to a child and through blood transfusion. This can easily be prevented through early detection,” he said, “We will train the staff of Mohalla Clinic to treat this disease along with screening and we will make sure that free medicines are available there to treat the disease at the primary level.We will devise a mechanism to provide free medicines to patients of Hepatitis B in Mohalla Clinics. Additionally, we will bring Hepatitis under the notifiable disease list of Delhi within the next few months.”

He also said, “The Delhi government will integrate the test of Hepatitis with its upcoming Health Management Information System, by this, we will ensure that every health card holder goes through a hepatitis test, once in a lifetime.”

Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who was also present, said that Delhi government shall stand committed to the elimination of Hepatitis B and C and would welcome any additional policy changes and financial support required by ILBS to make this program a success.