EU Action Plan for the prevention and control and medical management of Hepati

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Call for Action

 

EU Action Plan for the prevention and control and medical management of Hepatitis B

 

1.    More then 2000 million people alive today have been affected with Hepatitis B at some time in their lives. Of these, about 350 million remain infected chronically and become carriers of the virus. Three quarters of the world population live in areas where there are high levels of infection. Every year worldwide, there are over 4 million acute infections of Hepatitis B and about 1 million a year, die of the consequences of Hepatitis B. In Europe, the estimated number of chronic Hepatitis B patients is more then 14 million.

 

2.    Chronic Hepatitis B is a life-threatening viral disease that can lead to cirrhosis, liver failure and liver cancer, to which it is the foremost cause. The Hepatitis B virus is the most common carcinogen after tobacco. It is transmitted by contact with blood or body fluids of an infected person.

 

 

3.    The Hepatitis B virus is about a hundred times more infectious than HIV and the prevalence of Hepatitis B is far higher than the one of Hepatitis C.

 

4.    Hepatitis B, however, is preventable through education and immunisation.

 

 

5.    Early diagnosis can lead to the possibility of preventing further transmission of the disease

 

6. The various populations at risk of being infected with Hepatitis B demonstrate that, besides the health policy aspects, a number of policy areas are involved. The social policy area is concerned due to the heavy risk of infection at the workplace, especially in the hospital environment. The civil liberty area plays a role due to the infection risk of both drug abuse and migration from regions with high prevalence. Finally, an effect of family policy exists due to a certain risk of infection due to children adopted from high-prevalence countries and infants born to infected mothers. 

 

Despite its prevalence and harmful effects, Hepatitis B has not been appropriately dealt with in any policy field at the level of the European Union.

 

The signing Members of the European Parliament therefore call upon the European Commission, the European Centre of Disease Prevention and Control and on the Member States to implement an action plan to ensure better prevention, control and medical management of Hepatitis B. The action plan should contain the following elements:

 

1. Given the significant public health threats related to Hepatitis B, it should be a priority on the public health agenda of the European Commission, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the relevant national institutions.

 

2. In the consideration of the various policy areas involved and in the spirit of ‘health in all policies’, the European Commission should ensure that the origins of Hepatitis B and the threats related to Hepatitis B are reflected in all relevant policy areas. The European Commission should consult with the relevant stakeholders from the medical, policy and patient community to develop a holistic strategy to improve the prevention, control and medical management of Hepatitis B. More specifically the EU Commission identify best-practices for Hepatitis B prevention,  and should develop guidelines to ensure EU standards exist so that people identified via screening programs as infected with Hepatitis B get access to medical evaluation and management, including recommending antiviral therapy when appropriate

 

3. The signing members of the EU Parliament announce the creation of a European Hepatitis B Awareness Day to encourage Europeans at risk for chronic Hepatitis B to get tested and to increase the knowledge and understanding of the public at large to prevent further transmission and progression of the disease.

 

4. The ECDC shall support the establishment and maintenance of a Hepatitis B surveillance database in order to :

1. identify trends in the incidence of acute and chronic Hepatitis B, and

2. identify trends in prevalence of Hepatitis B infection among groups that may be disproportionately affected by Hepatitis B

 

5. Member States should implement national programs to support the objectives of the EU action plan, containing the following elements:

1. Ensure integration of Hepatitis B prevention and control activities into existing national programs to increase awareness and enhance understanding of Hepatitis B in terms of risk factors, transmission and prevention,

2. Update screening practices to recognise the value of early screening and detection of Hepatitis  B infections

3. Promote vaccination programs in line with the WHO recommendations to increase the awareness and access to Hepatitis B vaccines

4. Support training programs for health care professionals regarding the prevention, detection and medical management of Hepatitis B

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