TEHRAN- Saeid Karimi, the deputy minister of health, has said that free treatment for hepatitis C is provided for patients in the country.

"We hope to eliminate hepatitis C from the country with insurance coverage and other efficient measures," IRNA quoted Karimi as saying.

“To be able to do so, many patients have been diagnosed and registered in the [treatment] systems,” he added.

So far, some 600 patients under insurance coverage have been treated free of charge, he noted.

What is hepatitis C?

According to the World Health Organization, hepatitis C is a liver disease caused by the hepatitis C virus. The virus can cause both acute and chronic hepatitis, ranging in severity from a mild illness lasting a few weeks to a serious, lifelong illness.

The hepatitis C virus is a blood-borne virus and the most common modes of infection are through exposure to small quantities of blood. This may happen through injection drug use, unsafe injection practices, unsafe health care, and the transfusion of unscreened blood and blood products.

The prevalence of hepatitis C is approximately half percent in the country, which is luckily very low compared to neighboring countries.

Hepatitis elimination by 2030

Iran is planning to provide free diagnosis and treatment services to people who are suffering from hepatitis and eradicate the disease by 2030.

Diagnosis of the disease under the health network is free for all, and treatment is also free for financially vulnerable families.

Less than 200,000 people are diagnosed with hepatitis C; nearly 3,000 people are infected with hepatitis C each year.

It was decided that some 60,000 hepatitis C diagnostic kits provided by the World Health Organization to be delivered to medical science universities.

In the year 1400 (ended in March 2022), some 14,500 patients were treated and in the previous year (ended in March 2023), some 16,500 patients were treated in the country.

MT/MG