The Lancet yesterday published Taiwan’s hepatitis C elimination strategy, which the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said marked international recognition of the national effort to suppress the disease.
Minister of Health and Welfare Shih Chung-liang (石崇良), Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) and HPA Director-General Shen Ching-fen (沈靜芬) coauthored the study, which the journal published online as a letter in its correspondence section.
The publication follows an announcement by the Ministry of Health and Welfare late last year that Taiwan had reached its elimination goals ahead of schedule following a 10-year effort, the HPA said.
Photo: CNA
The WHO’s Western Pacific branch has confirmed receiving Taiwan’s hepatitis C study and thanked the nation for its participation in the global public health campaign against the disease, HPA Cancer Prevention and Control Division Director Hsieh Pei-chun (謝佩君) said.
The report is still undergoing internal review by the regional office and it remains unclear when the official results would be released, Hsieh said.
Taiwan had identified an estimated 92.4 percent of people with chronic hepatitis C by December last year and reported a 92.7 percent treatment rate among those diagnosed, exceeding the WHO’s diagnosis and treatment targets and Path to Elimination gold-tier benchmarks, which are achieving a 90 percent diagnosis rate and an 80 percent treatment rate by 2030, the HPA said.
The HPA since September 2020 has offered free hepatitis B and C screenings for people aged 45 to 79 and expanded eligibility to include people aged 39 to 79 in August last year, it said.
The National Health Insurance Administration has offered coverage for oral hepatitis C drugs since 2017 and waived all requirements related to hepatic fibrosis severity to encourage early treatment, the HPA said.
Taiwan achieved a 95 percent hepatitis C treatment rate across all high-risk groups, including people undergoing dialysis or methadone treatment, as well as people with HIV, while the national harm mitigation program provides sterilized needles, it said.
It has implemented rigorous standards to ensure blood supply and medical needles are not contaminated by the virus, the HPA said.
Taiwan is expanding its healthcare resources in mountainous regions, as well as improving the integration of national, local and community-level care, and creating a centralized monitoring network for health to support effective policy, it said.
It has also rolled out a hospital monitoring program to track long-term mortality trends associated with chronic liver disease and cirrhosis caused by hepatitis B and C, it said.
The measures have contributed to reductions in liver cancer incidence and mortality figures in the past few years, the HPA added.
‘FRIENDSHIP FLEET’: A CGA official is scheduled to meet with the president of the Pacific nation, while one of the ships is to host a banquet and National Day event Two Coast Guard Administration (CGA) patrol vessels have docked at Malakal Harbor in Palau as part of an expedition exercise and diplomatic visit, during which a senior official is expected to meet with Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr, the agency said yesterday. The two vessels, the 4,000-tonne-class Chiayi and the 1,000-tonne-class Penghu, set sail for Palau from Taiwan last week and arrived on Tuesday at Malakal Harbor, the CGA’s Fleet Branch said in a statement. The journey marks the second time the CGA has dispatched a “friendship fleet” to another country, after it sent its first-ever goodwill fleet, comprising the Hualien and
A patrol vessel donated by the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) to the Philippines was commissioned into the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Friday, a Philippine non-governmental organization said. The CGA on Sept. 16 confirmed media reports that Taiwan had donated a retired 500-tonne patrol vessel to the Philippines. The Manila-based We Protect Our Seas (WPS) foundation, which served as an intermediary in the transfer, said that the vessel was formerly the CGA’s 500-tonne petrol vessel Kinmen (CG123). The WPS, in a statement issued on Friday, said the vessel, renamed as the BRP Sarangani, had been commissioned into the PCG the
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) today said that two of its patrol vessels have docked at Palau's Malakal Harbor as part of an expedition exercise and diplomatic visit, during which a senior official is expected to meet with the Palauan president. The two vessels, the 4,000-tonne-class Chiayi (嘉義) and the 1,000-tonne-class Penghu (澎湖), set sail for Palau from Taiwan last week and arrived at Malakal Harbor yesterday, the CGA's Fleet Branch said in a statement. The journey marked the second time the CGA has dispatched a "Friendship Fleet" to another country, after it sent its first-ever goodwill fleet, comprising the Hualien (花蓮)
‘GRAY ZONE’ TACTICS: Beijing sent two China Coast Guard vessels to escort a ‘supposedly private research ship,’ a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman said The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday confirmed that it had recently deployed three patrol vessels to waters in Taiwan’s overlapping exclusive economic zone with the Philippines to monitor three Chinese vessels. CGA Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin (謝慶欽) said the agency regularly monitors Chinese vessels around Taiwan, and that the deployment south of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, was carried out in accordance with standard procedures. He added that the waters fall within the overlapping exclusive economic zones of Taiwan and the Philippines, which extend 200 nautical miles (370km) from their coastlines. Hsieh made the comments when asked about a
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