MPPSC 2026 Prelims Q81: Under National Viral Hepatitis Control Programme, by which

Q: What is the answer to MPPSC 2026 Prelims Q81?

D. Correct — D, 2030. The National Viral Hepatitis Control Programme (NVHCP) was launched by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on 28 July 2018 (World Hepatitis Day) and is implemented under the National Health Mission. Its stated aim is to combat hepatitis and achieve countrywide elimination of Hepatitis C by 2030, along with a significant reduction in the infected population and in the morbidity and mortality associated with Hepatitis B and C. The year is not arbitrary: it is locked to SDG target 3.3 and to the WHO global health sector strategy of eliminating viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030.

MPPSC 2026 Prelims Paper-I · Question 81 of 100

Verified against the official question paper. Answer as per the official MPPSC answer key.

Under National Viral Hepatitis Control Programme, by which year the objective is to eliminate viral hepatitis-C?

(a)2033
(b)2032
(c)2031
(d)2030

Answer

Why

Correct — D, 2030. The National Viral Hepatitis Control Programme (NVHCP) was launched by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on 28 July 2018 (World Hepatitis Day) and is implemented under the National Health Mission. Its stated aim is to combat hepatitis and achieve countrywide elimination of Hepatitis C by 2030, along with a significant reduction in the infected population and in the morbidity and mortality associated with Hepatitis B and C. The year is not arbitrary: it is locked to SDG target 3.3 and to the WHO global health sector strategy of eliminating viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030.

Why the others are wrong

(a)2033 — No Government of India or WHO document fixes 2033 for hepatitis elimination. It is a near-year decoy — the elimination architecture is pegged to the 2030 SDG deadline, not to a year beyond it.
(b)2032 — Not a target year in the NVHCP or in any WHO hepatitis strategy. India's other disease missions carry their own years (TB, sickle cell anaemia), but none of them is 2032 either.
(c)2031 — The closest and therefore most tempting decoy, but wrong: NVHCP documents and the WHO strategy both say 2030. A one-year shift is the standard way this question is spoiled.

Concept

Viral hepatitis is inflammation of the liver caused by five distinct viruses — A, B, C, D and E. They differ in how they spread and in what can be done about them: A and E travel by the faeco-oral route (contaminated food and water) and cause acute illness; B, C and D are blood-borne / body-fluid infections and can become chronic, leading to cirrhosis and liver cancer. The NVHCP, launched in 2018 under the National Health Mission, covers all five, and provides free screening and free treatment. It is one of the few national programmes in India whose headline promise is the elimination of a specific virus — Hepatitis C — by 2030.

The reason the programme singles out Hepatitis C for 'elimination' rather than mere 'control' is pharmacological. Hepatitis B has a vaccine (given at birth under the Universal Immunisation Programme) but no cure; Hepatitis C has no vaccine but is curable in most patients with a short course of direct-acting antivirals (DAAs), which NVHCP supplies free. A disease you can cure, cheaply and quickly, is a disease you can chase to zero — hence the elimination target. In the exam, the trap is a cluster of adjacent years; the defence is to remember that this target is an SDG-linked target, and SDG deadlines are 2030.

Key facts

NVHCP launched 28 July 2018 (World Hepatitis Day) by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, implemented under the National Health Mission
Goal: countrywide elimination of Hepatitis C by 2030; significant reduction in morbidity and mortality from Hepatitis B and C
Covers hepatitis A, B, C, D and E — prevention, testing, free treatment and mapping of treatment outcomes
Hepatitis C has no vaccine but is curable with direct-acting antivirals (DAAs), provided free under the programme; Hepatitis B has a vaccine (birth dose under UIP) but no cure
The 2030 date follows SDG target 3.3 and the WHO goal of eliminating viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030

The five hepatitis viruses — route, vaccine, and why only C is 'eliminated'

Hepatitis A→Faeco-oral (food/water); vaccine available; usually acute, self-limiting

Hepatitis B→Blood and body fluids, mother-to-child; vaccine available (birth dose under UIP); no cure — hence 'control', not elimination

Hepatitis C→Blood-borne; NO vaccine, but curable with direct-acting antivirals — this is the virus NVHCP targets for elimination by 2030

Hepatitis D→Needs an existing Hepatitis B infection to replicate; prevented indirectly by the Hepatitis B vaccine

Hepatitis E→Faeco-oral, water-borne; outbreak-prone; dangerous in pregnancy

Cure decides the verb. B can be prevented but not cured, so the programme says 'reduce'. C cannot be vaccinated against but can be cured, so the programme says 'eliminate by 2030'.

Study next

National Health Mission — its sub-missions (NRHM, NUHM) and the disease-control programmes housed under itIndia's other elimination targets: TB, kala-azar, measles-rubella, leprosy, and the National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission (2047)SDG 3 targets, especially 3.3 on ending epidemics of AIDS, TB, malaria and combating hepatitisUniversal Immunisation Programme — the vaccine list, including the Hepatitis B birth doseModes of transmission of blood-borne infections (Hepatitis B, C, HIV) and needle/tattoo safety

Common traps

Mixing up the target years of different missions — hepatitis C 2030, sickle cell anaemia 2047 — because they are all phrased as 'elimination'
Assuming Hepatitis C has a vaccine: it does not. It is Hepatitis B that has the vaccine, and Hepatitis C that has the cure
Reading 'elimination' as 'eradication'. Eradication means global zero (smallpox); elimination is reduction to a defined low level in a country

Both MPPSC and UPSC ask this area in two shapes — the target year of a named national mission, and the vaccine-versus-cure asymmetry between Hepatitis B and C. Memorise the pair (NVHCP → 2018 launch, 2030 target) and the pair (B = vaccine, no cure; C = cure, no vaccine).

Related PYQs

UPSC_2019_GS1_Q1002019Open & attempt →

Which one of the following statements is not correct?

(a) Hepatitis B virus is transmitted much like HIV.
(b) Hepatitis B, unlike Hepatitis C, does not have a vaccine.
(c) Globally, the number of people infected with Hepatitis B and C viruses are several times more than those infected with HIV.
(d) Some of those infected with Hepatitis B and C viruses do not show the symptoms for many years.

Answer(b) Hepatitis B, unlike Hepatitis C, does not have a vaccine — this is the incorrect statement; the vaccine exists for B, not for C.

Tests exactly the asymmetry that explains the 2030 elimination target — Hepatitis C has no vaccine but is curable, which is why NVHCP goes after C.

UPSC_2010_GS1_Q1252010Open & attempt →

Consider the following statements: 1. Hepatitis B is several times more infectious than HIV/AIDS 2. Hepatitis B can cause liver cancer Which of the statements given above is/are correct ?

(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer(c) Both 1 and 2

The disease burden that the NVHCP exists to attack — high infectivity of Hepatitis B and its progression to liver cancer.

MPPSC_2025_PRE_PaperI_Q952025Open & attempt →

By which year has "National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission" fixed the target to eliminate sickle cell anaemia from India ?

(a) 2032
(b) 2037
(c) 2042
(d) 2047

Answer(d) 2047

The identical question pattern one year earlier — the target year of a national disease-elimination mission, with four near-years as options.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
The National Viral Hepatitis Control Programme is implemented under which of the following?
- (a)National Health Mission
- (b)Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana
- (c)National AIDS Control Organisation
- (d)Indian Council of Medical Research
Answer(a) National Health Mission — NVHCP was launched by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in 2018 and runs under the NHM umbrella.
practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following statements about viral hepatitis is correct?
- (a)Hepatitis C is prevented by a vaccine given at birth
- (b)Hepatitis A and E spread mainly through contaminated food and water
- (c)Hepatitis B spreads mainly through the faeco-oral route
- (d)Hepatitis D can infect a person who has never had Hepatitis B
Answer(b) Hepatitis A and E spread mainly through contaminated food and water; B, C and D are blood-borne or body-fluid infections, and Hepatitis D needs an existing Hepatitis B infection.