WHO calls for urgent action to curb hepatitis

On the occasion of World Hepatitis Day of July 28, the World Health Organization (WHO) Thursday called for countries to enhance action to prevent viral hepatitis infection and to ensure that infected people are diagnosed and offered treatment.

The theme for World Hepatitis Day 2015 is the prevention of viral hepatitis. This year, WHO is focusing particularly on hepatitis B and C, which together cause approximately 80 percent of all liver cancer deaths and kill close to 1.4 million people every year.

WHO alerted people to the risks of contracting hepatitis from unsafe blood, unsafe injections, and sharing drug-injection equipment. Some 11 million people who inject drugs have hepatitis B or C infection. Children born to mothers with hepatitis B or C and sex partners of people with hepatitis are also at risk of becoming infected.

The UN health agency emphasized the need for all health services to reduce risks by using only sterile equipment for injections and other medical procedures, to test all donated blood and blood components for hepatitis B and C and to promote the use of the hepatitis B vaccine.

Approximately, two million people a year contract hepatitis from unsafe injections. These infections can be averted through the use of sterile syringes that are specifically designed to prevent reuse.

WHO recommended vaccinating all children against hepatitis B infection, from which approximately 780,000 people die each year. A safe and effective vaccine can protect from hepatitis B infection for life. Ideally, the vaccine should be given as soon as possible after birth, preferably within 24 hours.

Meanwhile, WHO also recommended vaccinating adults who are at increased risk of acquiring hepatitis B. These include people who frequently require blood or blood products, health-care workers, people who inject drugs, household and sexual contacts of people with chronic hepatitis B, and people with multiple sexual partners.

According to WHO, since 1982 over one billion doses of hepatitis B vaccine have been used worldwide and millions of future deaths from liver cancer and cirrhosis have been prevented.

Medicines are now available that can cure most people with hepatitis C and control hepatitis B infection. People who receive these medicines are much less likely to die from liver cancer and cirrhosis and much less likely to transmit the virus to others.

WHO urged people who think they might have been exposed to hepatitis to get tested so they can find out whether they need treatment to improve their own health and reduce the risk of transmission. Endit