Gearing up to become National Viral Hepatitis Control Program's nodal center, Lucknow's Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGI) has arrived at the decision to provide free treatment to Hepatitis C patients, starting from June 2023.

It is noteworthy that there are already seven centers in Uttar Pradesh that provide free Hepatitis C treatment and 75 centers across the country. And Lucknow's SGPGI will now be adding to the list, becoming the second center in the city after the King George Medical University.

What makes this a major move for patients is that they can now save at least Rs 20,000 which they would've spent in the 3-month long treatment regime, including the medicinal costs. Furthermore, this cost would go beyond said amount if a patient was to purchase the required medicine from the open market.

Apart from the Hepatitis C treatment at SGPGI, the institute has also announced that they won't be charging a penny for the two major tests that are required to diagnose the disease. These tests, too, would otherwise cost around Rs 3500 at the institute while costing up to Rs 12,000, when conducted at diagnostic centers in the open market.