Task force to boost efforts vs hepatitis

MANILA, Philippines - With around nine million Filipinos chronically infected with hepatitis B and C, experts have described the diseases as “silent epidemic.”

According to Dr. Diana Alcantara-Payawal, Hepatology Society of the Philippines (HSP) president, hepatitis B and C infections are “urgent major public health problem, yet have drawn little concern from the government.”

“There is an estimated 7.3 million Filipinos, (16.7 percent of the adult population) chronically infected with the hepatitis B virus (HBV),” she said. Majority of cases are in 20-49 age group, compromising the workforce.

Payawal said this rate is “extremely high, more than double the eight percent average prevalence of HBV infection in the Western Pacific region.”

Hepatitis C virus (HCV), on the other hand, afflicts some 2.3 percent or one million Filipinos.

Both HBV and HCV infections are strongly associated with later development of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma or live cancer.

“Due to its largely asymptomatic nature, viral hepatitis remains to be a silent epidemic in our country with most people oblivious of their infection,” she added.

The HSP yesterday launched the National Viral Hepatitis Task Force (NVHTF) to scale up efforts against the illnesses.

Dr. Janus Ong, of the HSP Committee on Health Policy, said the task force has created a strategic plan to serve as a “roadmap for viral hepatitis prevention and control.”

The roadmap adopts the framework of the World Health Organization’s Global Hepatitis Program that pushes four strategies, first of which is raising awareness about the illnesses.

Ong said that despite the heavy toll that viral hepatitis could put not only on a patient’s life and on the country’s economy as well, given its huge treatment costs, there is still lack of awareness among both the public and healthcare providers.

The other strategies are having evidence-based policy and data; prevention of transmission, and screening, care and treatment.

“With this roadmap, we hope to eradicate or significantly decrease the burden of viral hepatitis in the country. This is just the start of the work that needs to be done,” he added.