Hepatitis - what you need to know

Every year on July 28, World Hepatitis Day is celebrated and WHO decided to draw attention to this problem. In many countries, there are insufficient preventive measures against infectious diseases, in particular viral hepatitis, as well as diagnostics and treatment of infected patients.

This year, WHO has focused on hepatitis B and C, which together cause more than a million deaths each year.

You can become infected with hepatitis through poor-quality blood transfusions, injection equipment, unsafe injections (reusable syringes, droppers, etc.).

More than 10 million people who inject drugs are infected with hepatitis. Newborns whose mothers are infected are also at high risk of infection, as are sexual partners of infected patients.

WHO stressed that health services should take measures to reduce the risks of infection, in particular, using only sterile injection equipment, conducting thorough testing of donor blood and blood components used for transfusion.

In addition, the use of condoms, reducing the number of sexual partners, etc. will help reduce the spread of infection.

About 2 million people become infected with hepatitis every year due to poor quality injections, such cases of infection can be prevented by using disposable syringes, also the WHO recommends to make only vital injections, if it is possible to do without them, to prescribe drugs for oral administration. According to statistics, 16 billion injections are made annually in the world, 90% of which are the introduction of drugs, which, in most cases, are not vital and can be replaced without risk to the patient's health with oral therapy.

Today, there are quite effective drugs against hepatitis that help get rid of form C and keep form B under control. Patients who receive adequate therapy have a low probability of developing liver cancer or cirrhosis, and also reduce the risk of infecting their loved ones.

WHO encourages people who may have been exposed to hepatitis to get tested to ensure their health and reduce the risk of infecting others.

This year, WHO has already issued a number of recommendations for the treatment of hepatitis B, which pay special attention to simple diagnostic tests (non-invasive), which help determine the stage of liver disease and identify patients in need of treatment. In addition, it is necessary to conduct full therapy for patients with cirrhosis in the late stages and give preference to the most effective drugs to date - entecavir and tenofovir.

In 2015, WHO is holding an event in Egypt. This country was not chosen by chance – Egypt currently has the highest rates of hepatitis in the world (about 10% of the population aged 15 to 60 are infected with hepatitis C ).

It is worth noting that the prevention of this disease in Egypt is at the proper level, thanks to the support of WHO. The country's health services are being assisted in developing national blood safety standards. In addition, Egypt is implementing an injection safety program and WHO will support the practice of administering only life-saving injections to patients and using only disposable syringes.

This autumn, the first ever conference dedicated to hepatitis will be held, where not only will the problems associated with hepatitis be discussed, but also best practices in combating the disease will be shared. The conference will be sponsored by WHO, the Scottish Government (as the meeting will be held in one of the cities of that country), and the World Hepatitis Alliance.

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