Umbrella rally against Hepatitis-B in Odisha capital

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, July 28:

Hundreds of umbrellas created an unique spectacle on the streets of the Odisha’s capital city as politicians, cine stars and sports persons joined hands to create awareness about the scourge of Hepatitis-B with experts urging people to get vaccinated against the dreaded disease.

2Students of the SOA University, which organized the event under the banner of Centre for Health Awareness (CHA), carried umbrellas and placards saying protection was available against Hepatitis-B.

Members of Scouts and Guides also participated in the event, which was organized to mark the birth anniversary of Prof Baruch Samuel Blumberg who won the Nobel Prize for discovering the Hepatitis-B virus.

The day was observed as World Hepatitis Day.

Odia cine actress Archita, who attended the program along with actor Sabyasachi, urged the students to circulate the message informing people about the dangers of Hepatitis-B and how they could protect themselves.

“You can update your Facebook status as many don’t know about this. All must cooperate in this battle,” she said at the gathering held at the Scout and Guide headquarters.

Sabyasachi urged the media to play a big role in fighting Hepatitis-B as it is a killer and more dangerous than cancer or HIV.

MLAs Priyadarshi Mishra and Dibyashankar Mishra, MPs Balabhadra Majhi and Anam Nayak and former MLA Dilip Srichandan praised the initiative of SOA University to spread awareness about the disease.

Ganesh Jena, who conquered Mt. Everest, was also present.

The programme was conducted by Rusi Patnaik, Director of SOA Community Radio.

Dr Manoj Sahu, associate professor of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at IMS and Sum Hospital, run by SOA University, said that though the Hepatitis-B virus was 100 times more infectious than that of HIV, very few people knew about it.

“But the good news is that an effective vaccine is available against the disease. One shot of the injection can protect a person for life against the infection,” he said.

Among others, Prof DK Roy, medical director of IMS and Sum Hospital, Dr PK Mohanty, medical superintendent of Sum Hospital, Prof E Venkat Rao of Community Medicine department, Dr Anurag Satpathy of Institute of Dental Sciences, Pratibha Tripathy, dean of Sum Nursing College and convenor of CHA and Dr Jyoti Ranjan Das, associate professor of Institute of Business and Computer Studies, were present.

Also Read

Comments are closed.