A Taiwanese medical research team said that it has developed an index of five critical-risk factors used to predict the risk of developing liver cancer from hepatitis C in a five-to-5 year period.
Advancing Clinical Treatment of Liver Disease director and National Taiwan University Hospital Medical Department physician Kao Jia-horng (高嘉宏) said the prevalence of hepatitis C is about 4 percent in Taiwan — higher than in China, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia — with about 400,000 to 600,000 cases nationwide.
Hepatitis C is transmitted primarily by blood-to-blood contact, such as through unprotected sexual intercourse, tattoos, needle sharing, surgery, blood transfusion and acupuncture; and about 50 percent of patients with acute hepatitis C develop a chronic infection, he said.
If hepatitis C patients develop cirrhosis of the liver, about 30 percent are likely to suffer from hepatic failure within 10 years, and about 1 to 4 percent develop liver cancer every year, Kao said.
There is no vaccine for hepatitis C, Kao added.
The research team conducted a follow-up study on 1,095 hepatitis C patients over 15 years and identified five factors that contribute a patients’ risk of developing liver cancer — age, liver function index (alanine aminotransferase, ALT), virus genotype, viral load and the degree of liver fibrosis.
Team member and assistant professor at National Yang Ming University Institute of Clinical Medicine Lee Mei-hsuan (李美璇) said patients above 40 years of age, with higher ALT and hepatitis C viral load, more severe liver fibrosis and genotype 1 face greater risk of developing liver cancer and that the index model has a precision of about 70 percent.
The degree of liver fibrosis has the highest association with the risks of developing liver cancer, she said, adding that hepatitis C can be treated and cured, especially with new oral medicines developed to reduce viral load and slow the development of liver fibrosis, but patients are advised to make follow-up visits to doctors regularly.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei MRT is to begin accepting mobile payment services in the fall, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said on Saturday. When the company finishes the installation of new payment units at ticketing gates in October, MRT passengers can use credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, the operator said. In addition, the MRT would also provide QR payment codes — which would be compatible with Line Pay, Jkopay, iPass Money, PXPay Plus, EasyWallet, iCash Pay, Taiwan Pay and Taishin Pay — to access the railway system. Currently, passengers can access the Taipei MRT by buying a single-journey token or using EasyCard,
RSS