Table 3 Summary of interview data per informant group

AXIS I

Policy makers & Gastroenterology Association informant

• Other competing priorities to get policy attention & budget allocation

 Raising awareness, promoting partnerships and mobilizing resources

• No implementing & donor agencies

• No organizing body

• Minimal media awareness initiatives

Patients

• Traditional beliefs

• No awareness about the disease & transmission

• Awareness obtained via incidental diagnosis of oneself or close relative

AXIS II

Policy makers & Gastroenterology Association informant

• No policy & strategy for prevention, care & treatment

 Evidence-based policy & data for action

• No current national survey on both hepatitis B & C

• No hepatitis surveillance system

• No antivirals for hepatitis treatment registered on essential drug list

AXIS III

Policymakers

• Hepatitis B vaccine as pentavalent vaccine in Expanded Program on Immunization(EPI)

 Prevention of transmission

• 24-h-Birth-dose of hepatitis B vaccine not available

• No Adult Hepatitis B catch-up vaccine administration policy

• No Hepatitis specific health promotion or health education strategy

• HIV prevention activity indirectly helps in control of viral hepatitis

Laboratory technologists

• Standard of Practice to screen HIV, Hepatitis, & C, and Syphilis in blood banks

• Hepatitis screening only in private institutions upon request

AXIS IV

Healthcare professionals

• Hepatitis screening only in private institutions upon request

 Screening, care & treatment

• No organized treatment facility in the country

• Smuggled hepatitis treatment drugs are not affordable

• Lab investigation for treatment follow-up done abroad through agents, and is neither affordable nor accessible to the majority

• Patients neglected & discriminated

• Getting treatment is a human right issue

Pharmacists

• Antivirals for hepatitis treatment not available on market

• Antivirals for hepatitis treatment not registered on essential drug list

Drug suppliers

• No legal support to import antivirals for hepatitis and HIV

• Case-based drug import by prescription is very expensive

• No awareness as a major health problem

Clients

• No awareness about hepatitis screening

• Prescribed drugs not available on market

• Smuggled hepatitis treatment drugs are not affordable

• Feeling of discrimination

Client case stories

• four case stories narrated