The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) and its partners participate in the celebration of the World Hepatitis Day, which falls on July 28 every year, and is held this year under the slogan “Hepatitis-free future”, with a focus on protecting mothers and newborns from the hepatitis B virus.
World Hepatitis Day is an opportunity to reinforce efforts to implement the first global strategy developed by the World Health Organization on viral hepatitis for the period 2016- 2021 and to help countries achieve the ultimate goal of eliminating hepatitis.
The fight against hepatitis is one of the priorities of the health system in the State of Qatar in light of the complications resulting from infection such as cirrhosis, liver failure and liver cancer, and it is one of the complications that are difficult to treat and a major burden on the health system. The State of Qatar also follows a strategic approach to control and eliminate viral hepatitis through the joint efforts of the Ministry of Public Health, Hamad Medical Corporation, Primary Health Care Corporation, Qatar Red Crescent, the private sector and many local and global partners.
The Ministry of Public Health, Hamad Medical Corporation, the Primary Health Care Corporation and national partners are keen to implement awareness-raising campaigns about the disease, as well as a number of early screening campaigns for hepatitis C, which have shown a low incidence of this disease, as the prevalence of inflammation Type C liver is 0.8 percent among the entire population, and this percentage reached 0.25 per cent only among Qatari citizens.
According to the World Health Organization, Qatar is classified among the countries with a low burden of hepatitis B, with a prevalence of less than 2 percent. In the event that any of the cases with hepatitis are discovered, they will be transferred to Hamad Medical Corporation, where they have been treated with the latest and most effective medical drugs for the treatment of hepatitis C, known as direct-acting antiviral agents drugs, which are provided by the State of Qatar free of charge to all citizens and residents at Hamad Medical Corporation, in cooperation with Qatar Red Crescent, the private sector and many partners in the country. So far, more than 4000 patients have been treated at Hamad Medical Corporation and very high cure rates have been achieved.
The national working group for Hepatitis C, which includes all the effective partners in combating the disease in the State of Qatar, conducted many scientific research in cooperation with distinguished international institutions and was published in the most prestigious international scientific journals and presented in a number of international conferences.
The State of Qatar has received many international acclaim through scientific reports presented at the World Hepatitis Summit in Brazil early Nov. 2017, which indicated that Qatar is among the 9 countries in the world that is on the right path to eliminate the hepatitis C virus by 2030.
The State of Qatar, in cooperation with the World Health Organization, set the strategic framework to combat hepatitis in the country for the period 2018-2022, and the framework includes five strategic guidelines covering activities that enhance coordination efforts between different sectors, and ensure the provision of a high level of quality of epidemiological information on the disease, providing all preventive and curative hepatitis services and achieving comprehensive coverage of these services as well as providing the necessary resources.
The strategic framework to combat hepatitis focuses on the implementation of the goals related to the National Health Strategy 2018-2022 and the Public Health Strategy 2017- 2022, and the strategic framework has been adopted by officials of the national program to fight Hepatitis
