(Keep reading: Colombia registers more than 2,000 cases of viral hepatitis in the year)
According to the WHO, each year more than a million people die of hepatitis, the most lethal being types B and C. since of the 350 million people who currently suffer from them, only 10% and 21% respectively have been diagnosed.
(You may be interested: Cases of acute childhood hepatitis are low and stable: ECDC)
In addition, of those diagnosed with hepatitis C, curable by oral therapy, only 13% have received curative treatment, while this percentage drops to 2% in the case of people diagnosed with chronic hepatitis B.
“Millions of people are living with undiagnosed and untreated hepatitis around the world, even though we have the best tools ever to prevent, diagnose and treat it,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters. UN accredited.
A new WHO report shows that only 78% of the countries surveyed (64 out of 82) claimed to have a national screening policy.
It also sets as desirable objectives to diagnose 90% of people living with hepatitis B and C, as well as guarantee treatment to 80% of people diagnosed.
In the case of hepatitis B, mother-to-child transmission during pregnancy is the most common and occurs mainly in the Western Pacific region, Africa and Southeast Asia, where detection of pregnant women by hepatitis test B is key to slow transmission.
However, a new WHO report shows that only 78% of the countries surveyed (64 out of 82) claimed to have a national policy on testing of hepatitis B during pregnancy.
(Also read: A study attributes a viral origin to acute childhood hepatitis)
Of these, only half (32 of 64) declared that they finally applied these measures in prenatal care clinics. In this sense, the WHO insisted that the increase in hepatitis tests and its treatment within HIV programs will play a fundamental role in the elimination of hepatitis B in the countries most affected by this type of virus.
In addition, the organization highlighted the inclusion of a hepatitis B vaccine at birth doses in the Gavi Alliance’s 2018 Vaccine Investment Strategy, as it believes that “it will boost newborn vaccination programs in West and Central Africa, where mother-to-child transmission rates of hepatitis B remain very high.
“Lack of awareness of risk factors and the need to be tested for infection, coupled with insufficient availability and tests that remain too complex, seriously hamper the reach of new medicines,” the spokesperson said. from UNITAID, Herve Verhoosel.
Data released by UNITAID indicates that some 58 million people worldwide have hepatitis C, but only one in five is diagnosed and far fewer receive treatment.
(You may be interested: Cases of childhood hepatitis of unknown origin exceed a thousand)
80% of hepatitis C cases are concentrated in low- and middle-income countries, where the populations with the highest rates – people who inject drugs or those who are incarcerated – also tend to have the worst access to services sanitary.
“With 1.5 million new hepatitis C infections each year, we cannot afford to wait and must accelerate the best solutions, remove barriers and facilitate scaling up of critical interventions. to help meet the global goal of eliminating viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030,” the UNITAID spokesperson concluded.
