Hepatitis B and C are the main risk factors of liver cancer in Taiwan, but about 30 percent of people diagnosed with the diseases do not receive proper treatment, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said.
Liver cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the nation, accounting for about 13,000 deaths each year, it said.
According to the HPA’s 2016 cancer registration data, approximately 11,000 people were diagnosed with liver cancer that year, and about 80 percent among them had hepatitis B or C.
However, as people with liver disease often do not experience symptoms, many cases are not detected until the diseases progress to later stages, the HPA said.
A survey by the HPA showed that about 30 percent of people with hepatitis B or C do not get follow-up treatment, while 56.2 percent said they do not think treatment is necessary because they do not experience symptoms and 15.7 percent said they did not know that seeing a doctor was necessary.
More than 50 percent of people with hepatitis C develop chronic hepatitis C and about 20 percent develop cirrhosis, with 3 to 5 percent of those with cirrhosis diagnosed with liver cancer every year, the HPA said.
HPA Director-General Wang Ying-wei (王英偉) said hepatitis B and C infection risk factors include sharing needles or personal hygiene items, and unsafe sex, while a healthy diet, regular exercise and not drinking alcohol to excess are avoidance factors.
The National Health Insurance Committee on Friday announced that while it has relaxed eligibility for government-funded hepatitis C oral medication, the Ministry of Health and Welfare last month told it that there was not enough funding.
To achieve the goal of eliminating hepatitis C by 2025, the committee said it has agreed that about NT$1.9 billion (US$61.1 million) can be appropriated from a budget surplus allocated for three other items to fund the hepatitis C medication.
Separately, free hepatitis B and C screenings were offered at the Taipei Confucius Temple (台北市孔廟) yesterday. The event was organized by local branches of Rotary International’s 3523 District and the Liver Disease Prevention and Treatment Research Foundation.
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said at the event that liver disease was once called the “national disease,” as 16 to 18 percent of the population were carriers of hepatitis B before the central government implemented a universal hepatitis B vaccination program in 1984.
The government should establish a liver disease screening registry to make more efficient use of medical resources and prevent repeated or missed screenings, Ko said.
Foundation chairperson Yang Pei-ming (楊培銘) said that there is medication to treat hepatitis B and C, so the goal should be to raise public awareness about liver disease screenings and proper treatment in the early stages.
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