Expert calls for more hepatitis awareness in China

Hepatitis C is now a major public health threat in China and health departments must do more to raise public awareness of the disease, an expert said here Wednesday.

Hepatitis C is a serious threat to health in China and a public health challenge for the government, said Zhuang Hui, member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering from Peking University and director of the Society of Hepatitis Diseases, attached to the Chinese Medical Association.

He called for the more active measures to prevent the disease and to monitor high risk groups such as medical workers, intravenous drug users, gays, people with multiple sex partners and those who have received blood transfusions or organ transplants.

According to the national Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 40 million Chinese are carrying the hepatitis C virus. New infection cases jumped to about 60,000 in 2005 from 20,000 in 2003. About 50 to 85 percent of those carrying the virus will end up contracting the disease.

"There are currently no vaccines for hepatitis C and the disease is both chronic and asymptomatic," Zhuang said.

An estimated 170 million people worldwide are infected with the hepatitis C virus. It is a liver illness mainly transmitted by blood and through sexual contact. Although acute symptoms are relatively mild compared with other types of hepatitis, it tends to become chronic and can develop into cirrhosis and liver cancer.

The World Health Organization has launched a campaign to raise public awareness of hepatitis C and persuade countries to put hepatitis control and prevention firmly on their agenda, Zhuang said.

Hepatitis C virus checks are not run routinely in Chinese hospitals and there is no monitoring mechanism for high risk groups. The fact that patients are usually not detected and treated has led to the further spread of the virus, he said.

Source: Xinhua