Taiwan plans to apply in November or December for WHO certification that it eliminated hepatitis C, after already achieving the global health body’s 2030 target, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday.
The diagnosis and treatment rates of the disease among Taiwanese aged 45 to 84 exceeds 90 percent, and Taiwan has reached 100 percent of the WHO’s targets for safe medical injections and blood transfusions, ministry officials told a news conference after a weekly Cabinet meeting in Taipei.
Since 2017, the National Health Insurance has covered direct-acting antiviral medications, which are commonly used to treat hepatitis C, the ministry said.
Photo: Chiu Chih-jou, Taipei Times
Initially, the system only covered the medications for people whose liver fibrosis had reached a certain level on the meta-analysis of histological data in viral hepatitis scoring system, but by 2019, coverage had been expanded to include all people with hepatitis C, it said.
The government in 2019 opened hepatitis C screening to people aged 45 to 79, before expanding it to people as young as 40, it said.
Starting from this month, the minimum age would be 39, it added.
The Asia-Pacific Liver Disease Alliance awarded Taiwan top scores in “national action plan,” funding, “political commitment” and “implementation of elimination effort.”
To maintain its success, the government would continue to monitor the disease, educate high-risk people about prevention and the spread of hepatitis C, and ensure that medical institutions follow proper procedures, it said.
Separately, the Health Promotion Administration warned against underestimating the health risks associated with metabolic syndrome, the medical term for having at least three of five conditions: high blood pressure, high blood sugar, abdominal obesity, low serum high-density lipoprotein and high serum triglycerides.
People who lose weight through medication should still adopt healthy lifestyles to prevent regaining the weight, it said.
About 35 percent of Taiwanese aged 40 or older have metabolic syndrome, the agency said, citing data collected over the past five years.
Eighty percent of them had an increased waistline, it said.
Chronic Disease Prevention Division Director Tseng Kuei-chin (曾桂琴) told a news conference in Taipei that people with metabolic syndrome are twice as likely to develop cardiovascular diseases and stroke, and six times more likely to have diabetes.
Tsai Meng-hsiu (蔡孟修), director of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Chi Mei Hospital, said that many people are interested in losing weight with liraglutide, which is sold under the brand Saxenda in Taiwan and can stimulate insulin secretion, suppress glucagon, delay gastric emptying and reduce appetite.
Clinical trials showed that among the people who used the medication for 36 weeks and lost 20 percent of their body weight, those who continued treatment experienced an additional 5 percent weight loss, Tsai said.
Those who switched to a placebo regained an average of 14 percent of their weight after one year, he said.
Another three-year study showed that the diabetes incidence rate among those who took conventional oral antidiabetic drugs fell 31 percent, he said.
However, when participants also maintained healthy diets and performed middle-to-high-intensity exercises for at least 150 minutes per week, the incidence rate could drop to 58 percent, he said.
“Medication helps people lose weight in the short run, but without changing habits, it would only trap people in a cycle of medicating, regaining weight and medicating again,” he said.
Additional reporting by CNA
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