A WALK FOR LIVER- HEPATHON

                       

 Mumbai/Churchgate: At the onset of sunrise on a Sunday, members of the hetero health  care in association with the IPA held a silent rally labelled “Hepathon”   which included Pharmacy  Students from all places across Mumbai.

                                      Their faces lit and with firm determination   they marched silently from KC College  to Marine Drives Jogging Track via Madame Cama Road and back again to KC College. Although in the      process of arming themselves with a Bachelors in Pharmacy Degree these students took upto the streets and had one intention in mind; spreading awareness regarding a silent killer, a disease that harbours in every corner of the world, killing about 1.2 million  innocent lives every year.

                               Hepatitis, a disease with which most of us are unaware of, is a disease of the liver          charactersized by the presence of inflammatory cells  in the tissue of the organs. It may occur without symptoms, but can lead to Jaundice, poor appetite and fatigue. Depending on the cause, hepatitis manifest either as an acute or as a chronic disease. Also there are some main hepatitis viruses referred to as  type; A,B,C,D and E which pose the greatest risk.

               Around 400 million people worldwide are living with this disease which together cause approx. 80% of all liver cancer deaths. Although this figure is significantly high as compared to AIDS or any other disease, the knowledge or awareness regarding hepatitis among the people is almost negligible. An estimate is that with better awareness and understanding of hepatitis , upto 4000 lives can be saved everyday.

                        According to WHO, in developing countries, which provide very poor sanitary conditions and hygenic practices, most children have been infected with the hepatitis A virus before the age of 10 years which is a saddening figure itself and the number keeps on increasing everyday. This being the sole reason that Mr. Vikrant Desai who heads the hepatic division of the Hetero Health Group came up with the idea of organising an awareness camp and well indeed succeeded in executing it in a well organized manner.

            After the rally, a well known speakers Dr. Karim Khan, Dr. Husssain Hagaria and Dr. Manjhur  held a session with the students and enlightened them with their  knowledge and words of wisdom, thereby encouraging them to do their very best in order to evade and successfully diminish the presence of this evil pestering around the country and the world.

               All in all, Hepathon helped passerbys and vehicle owners gain valuable insight regarding the disease . Pamplets were distributed throughout the rally and the huge congregation helped gain people’s attention. Our honourable policeman stretched out their helping hands in resolving the  traffic Amazed at the response Mr. Vikrant too was encouraged and he intends to conduct programmes for the welfare of society with the intention to rope in more people to conduct a larger campaign in future.