400m Contract Hepatitis

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has urged countries to take rapid action to improve knowledge about viral hepatitis and to increase access to testing and treatment services for people with the health condition, as the disease reaches an alarming proportion.

Dr Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General in a release to mark the day which is commemorated on July28, said the world has ignored hepatitis at its peril.

She said around the world, 400 million people are infected with hepatitis B and C, more than 10 times the number of people living with HIV.

Also, she indicated that an estimated 1.45 million people died of the disease in 2013 – up from less than a million in 1990.

“Today, only 1 in 20 people with viral hepatitis know they have it. And just 1 in 100 with the disease is being treated. It is time to mobilise a global response to hepatitis on the scale similar to that generated to fight other communicable diseases like HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis,” she said.

New Strategy
In May 2016, at the World Health Assembly and 194 governments adopted the first-ever Global Health Sector Strategy on viral hepatitis and agreed to the first-ever global targets.

The strategy includes a target to treat eight million people for hepatitis B or C by 2020. The longer term aim is to reduce new viral hepatitis infections by 90 percent and to reduce the number of deaths due to viral hepatitis by 65 percent by 2030 from 2016 figures.

“The strategy is ambitious, but the tools to achieve the targets are already in hand. An effective vaccine and treatment for hepatitis B exists,” Dr Chan stated.

There is no vaccine for hepatitis C, but there has been dramatic progress on treatment for the disease in the past few years.

“We need to act now to stop people from dying needlessly from hepatitis. This requires a rapid acceleration of access to services and medicines for all people in need,” Dr Gottfried Hirnschall, WHO’s Director of the HIV/AIDS Department and Global Hepatitis Programme, mentioned.

Preventing hepatitis
Hepatitis B and C infections are transmitted through contaminated blood as well as through contaminated needles and syringes in healthcare setting and among people who inject drugs.

The viruses can also be transmitted through unsafe sex and from an infected mother to her newborn child.

Implementing blood safety strategies, including quality-assured screening of all donated blood and blood components used for transfusion can help prevent transmission of hepatitis B and C. Safe injection practices, eliminating unnecessary and unsafe injections, can be effective strategies to protect against transmission.

Harm reduction services for people who inject drugs are critical to reduce hepatitis in this population. Safer sex practices, including minimising the number of partners and using barrier protective measures (condoms) also protect against transmission.

By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri