News
Hepatitis B and C - 35,000 Mauritians affected
Monday 8 August 2011
Mauritius:
International Day against Hepatitis was celebrated last week on July 28. It was an occasion to focus on particular measures for the prevention, screening and fighting against the disease. There are various types of Hepatitis: A, B, C, D and E. In Mauritius, it is the viral hepatitis C which is more common, according to Dr Inayat Sameer Mowlah, general practitioner at the Ministry of Health. Types B and C are the most dangerous since they are chronic.
In Mauritius, several persons were contaminated before 1997 through blood transfusion.
“The blood pints were not tested for the presence of the Hepatitis C virus before 1997 and this led to the contamination of some persons who underwent a blood transfusion. This risk does not exist anymore since all blood is tested since 1997,” explains the doctor.