Chinese, US Agencies Help Hepatitis B Prevention in Northwest China

liver411

CDC 09/12/06

CHINA:   "Chinese, US Agencies Help Hepatitis B Prevention in Northwest
China"

Xinhua News Agency    (09.11.06)
In a bid to stop the spread of hepatitis B virus (HBV) in northwest China's
Qinghai province, the Chinese Foundation for Hepatitis Prevention and
Control (CFHPC) and Stanford University's Asian Liver Center are offering
free vaccines to the province's 60,000 children. The joint venture will also
train local medical staff in HBV prevention and treatment.

The Qinghai Provincial Health Bureau said children will be vaccinated
starting this month and ending next May at a cost of more than 2 million
yuan ($250,000 US). Li Yanming, head of disease control at the Health
Bureau, said the program will work on raising awareness of HBV prevention
among children in the province.

According to Li, the province has scaled up HBV vaccination in children and
infants, especially since the government added it to the list of planned
immunizations in 2002. Currently, about 85 percent of infants in Qinghai are
vaccinated against the virus. Nationwide, 75 percent of babies were
inoculated in 2004, compared with 60 percent prior to 2002, Ministry of
Health figures show.

The Qinghai program is one of several launched by CFHPC and the Chinese
Ministry of Health this year targeting HPV. Other initiatives include a
two-year project to increase HPV prevention among rural woman and to help
train health care workers in HBV treatment in rural areas. The pilot project
will reach around 600 grassroots medical workers and 340,000 rural women of
child-bearing age.

China has an estimated 120 million HBV infections out of a population of 1.3
billion. The Ministry of Health reports about 20 million Chinese have
chronic hepatitis B, and 280,000 people die of HBV-related hepatocirrhosis
and liver cancer each year.