The Health Promotion Administration (HPA) is considering expanding the eligibility for government-funded hepatitis B and C screening to include people aged 40 and older, and aiming to do that by July, HPA Director-General Wu Chao-chun (吳昭軍) said yesterday.
The WHO has set a target to eliminate hepatitis C as a public health threat by 2030, and while Taiwan is not a member, it has been making efforts to achieve the goal.
In 2020, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) expanded government-funded hepatitis B and C screenings to offer a one-time, lifetime screening for adults aged 45 to 79, and for Indigenous people aged 40 to 79.
Photo: Lin Chih-yi, Taipei Times
The HPA last year increased the screening payment subsidy to NT$370 (US$11.31) as an incentive for healthcare facilities to provide the service, and it also offered rewards for referring people who tested positive for follow-up examination and treatment.
As of last month, more than 7 million people have received the screening and the liver cancer incidence in Taiwan has declined annually.
The incidence rate of liver cancer was 23.7 percent in 2022, lower than those of breast cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer and colorectal cancer, Taiwan Cancer Registry data showed.
Taiwan has been making good progress in eliminating hepatitis C, Wu said.
The HPA expects the goal to be achieved this year and would send documents to an international organization to apply for hepatitis C elimination certification, he said, adding that there is still progress to be made in eliminating hepatitis C, and hopefully, it can be achieved by 2030.
Taiwan is the first country to carry out universal hepatitis B vaccination of newborns.
Liver cancer has long been the second leading cause of cancer deaths in Taiwan, and about 80 percent of people with liver cancer had been infected with either hepatitis B or C, Wu said.
As most people born before 1986 were not vaccinated against hepatitis B and therefore face a higher risk of infection, the HPA plans to extend screening eligibility to this group before they turn 45, he said, adding that early detection improves treatment outcomes and prognosis.
Expanding the government-funded screening program aims to encourage unvaccinated people and people approaching 40 years of age to get tested as early as possible, as waiting until age 45 might be too late, he said.
The HPA is planning a budget of NT$300 million for the initiative, which is expected to benefit more than 1 million people, he added.
Government agencies are working to complete the necessary administrative procedures, with the goal of launching the program in July, he said.
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