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Is Europe ready to eliminate viral hepatitis? Is the US ready to eliminate HCV?
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World Hepatitis Day is July 28 tomorrow
from Jules: clearly the USA & world is not committed to eliminating HCV despite that we have new short-term therapies that can CURE HCV, yes we can cure what is widely accepted as a health epidemic in the US & globally. But no government & particularly the US federal government & The White House have any commitment to eliminate HCV. In the US only $34 million is budgeted federally to fight HCV at the CDC, this is an insult, if there were a cure for any other mainstream disease like cancer, heart disease, diabetes The White House & Congress would respond differently, its because HCV is stigmatized, injection drug users, a throw away group.
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Iran to eradicate hepatitis in 15 years:
official.....
http://www.tehrantimes.com/news/404677/Iran-to-eradicate-hepatitis-in-15-years-official
Concern over soaring cases of liver failure and liver cancer among Kenyans due to Hepatitis....."Various studies show that at least 40 per cent of Kenyans attending liver clinics in the country are infected with Hepatitis. B and C. This is a very high figure that should make everyone sit up and take notice....Kenyans living with HIV are also succumbing to death not from HIV, but from liver complications caused by Hepatitis B and C. The viruses make the Anti-Retroviral treatment against HIV less effective thereby accelerating their death....at least 10 per cent of pregnant women in the country have the viruses and will pass them to their children during childbirth. New born babies have up to 90 per cent risk of developing liver complications after being infected."
.....http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/health/article/2000209977/concern-over-soaring-cases-of-liver-failure-and-liver-cancer-among-kenyans-due-to-hepatitis
Hepatitis kills 400 daily in Pakistan...20 million people in Pakistan are infected with hepatitis C or hepatitis B......well over 150,000 new patients of hepatitis are added to the existing load of patients in the country. Viral hepatitis affects 400 million people globally. Every year, six to 10 million people are newly infected with the hepatitis virus around the globe.......https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/137946-Hepatitis-kills-400-people-daily-on-average
in USA, Increased risk for mother-to-child transmission of HCV - HCV Vertical Transmission Increases 68% Nationally, in Kentucky <124%, HCV detection Rate Among Women of Child-Bearing Age in Kentucky Increased >200%....public health policies needed
"Urgent action to fight hepatitis C in people who inject drugs in Europe.....
"The hepatitis C pandemic is a pressing public health threat"....."strategic action at the policy level is urgently needed to increase access to HCV prevention, testing and treatment among PWID....overall diagnosis rate for HCV infection of 33 % and a treatment rate of 3.7 %....overall diagnosis rate for HCV infection of 33 % and a treatment rate of 3.7 %....remains a hidden epidemic.....Many individuals with chronic HCV infection are diagnosed after being infected for many years and enter care only when they develop clinical symptoms, despite having been engaged by the healthcare system earlier [46]. Late diagnosis of HCV is associated with worse outcomes [46] and with the risk of onward transmission.....treatment priority is based on fibrosis stage, risk of progression to more advanced disease, presence of extrahepatic manifestations of infection and cirrhosis. It should also take into account the risk of transmission....Recently, at least three further modelling studies have evaluated the impact and cost-effectiveness of interferon-free DAAs in PWID""
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Is Europe ready to eliminate viral hepatitis?
27 Jul 2016
http://ecdc.europa.eu/en/press/news/_layouts/forms/News_DispForm.aspx?ID=1456&List=8db7286c-fe2d-476c-9133-18ff4cb1b568&Source=http://ecdc.europa.eu/en/Pages/home.aspx
The recently launched global strategy on viral hepatitis aims at eliminating hepatitis B (HBV) and C (HCV) as public health threats by 2030. Among the goals: a 90% drop in the number of chronically infected people and reduction of the mortality rate by 65% as untreated chronic viral hepatitis can cause irreversible liver damage leading to cirrhosis or cancer.
"To eliminate viral hepatitis in Europe, we need to work together to boost testing services, scale up treatment programmes and increase the coverage of prevention interventions to prevent infections in the first place", says ECDC Acting Director Andrea Ammon on the occasion of World Hepatitis Day. "At the same time, our surveillance systems need to be improved because the current data sources in most countries of the European Union and European Economic Area are insufficient to adequately assess the actual local burden of viral hepatitis."
ECDC is working closely with the Member States to improve local surveillance systems and develop alternative epidemiological methods to complement routine surveillance for example with seroprevalence and sentinel surveys.
"Our data show on-going transmission of hepatitis in Europe. If we want to interrupt this chain and prevent further infections, we need to strengthen local prevention and control practices", Ammon explains. "There are now highly effective drugs available for people infected with hepatitis B and C. But we also need to test more for hepatitis to make sure that we are able to identify and diagnose all those who might be unknowingly infected."
Vytenis Andriukaitis, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, said: "Viral hepatitis continues to pose a serious health challenge in the European Union. Further efforts are needed to prevent and combat this disease, which is sometimes called the 'silent killer' as symptoms often do not appear until it is too late. Hepatitis is also 'silent' in the way that it affects the most vulnerable groups of our society. We need to increase the volume on this preventable disease, and the Commission is playing its part in supporting national efforts so that we collectively eliminate hepatitis in Europe. For example, the Commission is investing over 1 million euros in a new project to support early diagnosis of viral hepatitis."
HBV and HCV trends across Europe
New data for hepatitis B and hepatitis C infection show a greater disease burden for hepatitis C compared with hepatitis B across Europe. Numbers and notification rates for HCV are nearly twice as high as those of hepatitis B: between 2006 and 2014, around 161 000 newly diagnosed cases of hepatitis B and more than 276 000 hepatitis C infections were recorded. In 2014 alone, 22 442 cases of hepatitis B virus infection were reported from 30 EU/EEA Member States and 28 EU/ EEA Member States recorded 35 321 new cases of hepatitis C. While the reported rate of acute HBV cases almost halved (54%) since 2006 - most likely a result of national vaccination programmes - rates of chronic cases have constantly gone up over time from 5.7 per 100 000 population in 2006 to 9.8 in 2014. This increase is probably due to changes in reporting methods as well as increases in local testing practices.
Between 2006 and 2014, the overall number of HCV cases diagnosed and reported across all EU/EEA Member States increased by 28.7%, with most of this increase observed since 2010.
In the EU/EEA as a whole, a new ECDC study estimates that migrants account for around 25% of chronic hepatitis B, and 14% of chronic hepatitis C cases in the EU/EEA. But despite a high burden of chronic viral hepatitis infections among migrants, the risk of onward transmission of infection is likely to be low. The aim of this study was to estimate the chronic viral hepatitis burden in terms of infected cases among first-generation migrants in EU/EEA countries based on best available data sources and to identify those migrant groups with the largest number of cases who would benefit most from targeted screening programmes and early linkage to care.
Read more:Annual Epidemiological Report: hepatitis B
Annual Epidemiological Report: hepatitis C
Epidemiological assessment of hepatitis B and C among migrants in the EU/EEA
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