DENTAL QUACKS AND HEPATITIS-C … A Killer Combination

In the recent few months there is sharp increase in number of cases reported of HEPATITIS -C  patients in Punjab and Haryana area.

The disease which has national occurrence rate of 2 % is affecting as much as 20% population in certain towns of Punjab . Though the official figures show it  to a be around 7% in punjab but no surveys are done in interior villages  .

This Disease is caused by a virus. It results in jaundice early on and later leads to liver cirrhosis and it becomes chronic in 85 % cases and even leads to liver cancer in few.

Various factors are attributed for the rise of this disease but one very important cause which seems to get unnoticed for this killer disease is DENTAL TREATMENT. 

That’s right!!! Dental treatment ; which is done at a setup without proper sterilization routine, as is the case at most of QUACKERY DENTAL CLINICS in most villages and small towns. So the one thing that is found common in all the areas with high percentage of this disease is number of people visiting these Quacks.

Quackery  is very common in medicine field, all the localities in the our cities have  one or two quacks who give 3 -4 loose pills  ,for most of the diseases and residents go to them for every flu n ache.

But dentistry unlike medicine is mostly a surgical branch

Even the routine procedure like scaling (cleaning of the teeth) involves bleeding and therefore involves chances for all the blood borne diseases to transfer from one individual to other via the contaminated instruments.

And Hepatitis C is Caused by a virus and not a bacteria

Viruses have a high tendency to survive in non living medium for months and years till they will reach into blood and will become active again .

So unlike bacteria’s these viruses have long shelf life.

And not only this, It requires even stricter sterilization technique to kill viruses.

And one more factor for this is the fact that hepatitis c is mostly asymptomatic for very long duration, so patient and even the doctor wouldn’t know if the patient is suffering from this deadly disease.

So it is very important that even the smallest of procedures that involve exposure to blood should be done in perfectly sterile conditions

Proper awareness is a must ,so that everybody comes to know how to prevent themselves from such disaeases