The Advancing Clinical Treatment of Liver Disease group yesterday announced its members would work toward eradicating viral hepatitis in the nation by 2030.
The announcement was made on the eve of today’s World Hepatitis Day, which was initiated by the World Hepatitis Alliance to raise awareness about viral hepatitis, and to call for improved access to treatments, better prevention programs and government action.
National Taiwan University Medical College chair professor Chen Ding-shinn (陳定信) said that 30 years ago, Taiwan was the first nation in the world to implement a universal hepatitis B vaccination program, which significantly improved the prevention of the disease, and about a decade ago, improved medication also helped greatly reduce the number of hepatitis B carriers.
A Taiwanese medical research team discovered a combination of the drugs peginterferon and ribavirin was an effective hepatitis C treatment.
Hepatitis C treatments have been covered by the National Health Insurance system since 2003, but there are still about 600,000 people with hepatitis C in Taiwan, he said.
National Taiwan University graduate institute of clinical medicine professor Kao Jia-horng (高嘉宏) in September last year said that the participants at the first World Hepatitis Summit, held by the WHO and the World Hepatitis Alliance, released the Glasgow Declaration on Hepatitis, which set the goal of eliminating viral hepatitis as a public health concern by 2030.
“The WHO estimates that there are more than 400 million people worldwide living with viral hepatitis — about 240 million with hepatitis B and about 170 million with hepatitis C — which is more than 10 times the number of people with HIV/AIDS” he said. “Deaths caused by viral hepatitis increased to more than 1.45 million worldwide in 2013.”
Kao said that the main reason that deaths caused by hepatitis are on the rise is that liver diseases often have no noticeable symptoms in their early stages, and WHO data show that only about one in every 20 people with viral hepatitis is aware of their status, while only one in every 100 infected people is receiving treatment.
Earlier this week, the Liver Disease Prevention and Treatment Research Foundation also released hepatitis C statistics collected from the foundation’s free liver-disease screening events conducted between 2011 and last year, which included 143,520 participants.
Of those screened, 6,043 people tested positive for hepatitis C, a prevalence rate of 4.2 percent, the foundation said, adding that the highest infection rate of 7.3 percent was detected in a region comprising Yunlin, Chiayi and Tainan counties, indicating that one in every 14 people in the area might have hepatitis C.
Vaccination and effective oral drugs for treatment with fewer side effects are already being implemented and prescribed, and with the establishment of a hepatitis prevention program at a national level, the goal of eliminating viral hepatitis is hopeful, Kao said, adding that under the auspices of the program, a hepatitis C elimination scheme is to be trialed in Kinmen County.
A first shipment of five tons of Taiwan tilapia was sent from Tainan to Singapore on Wednesday, following an order valued at NT$600,000 (US$20,500) placed with a company in the city. The products, including frozen whole fish and pre- cooked fish belly, were dispatched from Jiangjun Fishing Harbor, where a new aquatic processing and logistics center is under construction. At the launch, Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) called the move a “breakthrough,” marking Taiwan’s expansion into the Singaporean tilapia market. Taiwan’s tilapia exports have traditionally focused on the United States, Canada, and the Middle East, Huang said, adding that the new foothold in
An electric bus charging facility at Taipei Metro’s Beitou Depot officially opened yesterday with 22 charging bays to serve the city’s 886 electric buses. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) told a ceremony to mark the opening of the facility that the city aims to fully electrify its bus fleet by 2030. The number of electric buses has grown from about 650 last year to 886 this year and is expected to surpass 1,000 by the end of the year, Chiang said. Setting up the charging station in a metro depot optimizes land and energy use, as the metro uses power mainly during the
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Traffic controls are to be in place in Taipei starting tonight, police said, as rallies supporting recall efforts targeting the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers as well as a rally organized by the KMT opposing the recall campaigns are to take place tomorrow. Traffic controls are to be in place on City Hall Road starting from 10pm tonight and on Jinan Road Section 1 starting from 8am tomorrow, police said. Recall campaign groups in Taipei and New Taipei advocating for the recall of KMT legislators, along with the Safeguard Taiwan, Anti-Communist Alliance (反共護台聯盟), have previously announced plans for motorcycle parades and public
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