East Asia and the Pacific against hepatitis B

The World Health Organization (WHO) said that most East Asian and Pacific countries have succeeded in fighting against hepatitis B through vaccination.

WHO representative office in the Western Pacific region (including countries such as China, Australia and Papua New Guinea) said it would host World Hepatitis Hepatitis Day to celebrate the region's success. in fighting this disease on July 28 next.

Director of WHO representative office in the Western Pacific region, Dr. Shin Young-Soo said: "Our member countries have committed to reducing the rate of hepatitis B infection in children under 2. % in 2012 and I'm happy with this goal. '

Australia, China, New Zealand, Japan and Fiji are the countries in this campaign.

The Western Pacific region is the first of six WHO regions to limit the rate of children infected with hepatitis B through vaccination. Because this is the region that accounts for about half of the world's hepatitis B cases, with about 160 million people infected with hepatitis B virus, most of them are infected during childbirth or early life.

However, Mr. Shin also said that although it has succeeded in reducing the rate of hepatitis B, WHO still needs to make efforts to control other hepatitis viruses in this area.

Currently, in the region, more than 360,000 people die each year from chronic hepatitis B virus or HBV infection. Hepatitis C has also infected more than 60 million people in the region, but there is no vaccine available to fight these viruses.

In addition, according to Mr. Shin, we need to coordinate the implementation, including activities such as screening, prevention and treatment of infected people to reduce absolute deaths from infection.