China news agency, Beijing, July 24 (Reporter Chun Li) Shen Hongbing, deputy director of the National Bureau of Disease Control and Prevention of China and academician of China Academy of Engineering, said in Beijing on July 24 that China has actively promoted the immunization program vaccination, and the vaccination rates of hepatitis B vaccine and hepatitis A vaccine for school-age children have reached over 90%.
The 2022 World Hepatitis Day Publicity Conference was held in Beijing on the same day. Shen Hongbing said at the meeting that the prevention and control of viral hepatitis in China has achieved positive results, and the cure rate of hepatitis C has reached 95%. Patients with hepatitis B who receive standardized treatment can achieve clinical cure and effectively delay and block the spread and development of the disease. In 2014, the positive rate of hepatitis B virus surface antigen under 5 years old in China has dropped to 0.32%, which has achieved the goal of hepatitis B control in the Western Pacific Region of the World Health Organization ahead of schedule.
Shen Hongbing said that in terms of preventing the spread of hepatitis infection and reducing the increment, China has actively promoted the immunization program vaccination. The vaccination rate of school-age children with hepatitis B vaccine and hepatitis A vaccine has reached more than 90%, and newborns born to pregnant women with positive hepatitis B surface antigen are vaccinated with hepatitis B vaccine and hepatitis B immunoglobulin free of charge, achieving full coverage of preventing mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis B.
He also said that China actively carried out scientific research and innovation in the prevention and treatment of major infectious diseases such as viral hepatitis and successfully developed the world’s first hepatitis E vaccine; At the same time, strengthen the management of blood safety and medical safety, and realize the full coverage of blood stations, blood, hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus nucleic acid detection.
Qiao Jianrong, the representative office of the World Health Organization in China, said that in recent years, the global elimination of viral hepatitis has made some progress, and the global overall goal of reducing the hepatitis B infection rate of children under five years old to less than 1% in 2020 has been achieved, and the number of people receiving hepatitis C treatment has increased nine times, reaching nearly 10 million, reversing the upward trend of viral hepatitis mortality for the first time.
Qiao Jianrong also pointed out that China has made remarkable achievements in preventing new infections of viral hepatitis, successfully preventing new infections of hepatitis B among this generation of young people, basically cutting off the spread of hepatitis C through blood, which means greatly reducing the incidence and death of liver cancer and cirrhosis in the future.
"While affirming the achievements, we are also soberly aware that China’s hepatitis prevention and control work still faces severe challenges." Shen Hongbing also pointed out that the number of infected patients and people with hepatitis B or hepatitis C virus is huge, the disease burden is serious and the quality of life needs to be improved. However, the basic medical and health service ability, public awareness and self-protection ability in China still need to be improved, and the prevention and control of viral hepatitis still has a long way to go, which requires further efforts.