Essential
- In the European Union and the European Economic Area, five million people live with chronic hepatitis B or C.
- The majority of them are still not diagnosed and therefore do not receive care.
- Thus, these patients are exposed to a high risk of developing chronic liver disease and liver cancer.
“The burden of hepatitis remains high in the European Union and the European Economic Area (EU/EEE).” This is the observation made by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). In a press release, Marieke Van der Werf, Sectionally transmitted infections section, blood transmitted virus and tuberculosis, reported that these universal infectious diseases, which have in common an inflammation of liver cells linked to viruses, are responsible for around 50,000 deaths each year. More precisely, “15,000 dead are linked to hepatitis B and 35,000 to hepatitis C.”
Viral hepatitis: the majority of patients ignore being affected and do not benefit from treatment
Yet currently, five million people in the European Union and the European Economic Area still live with chronic B or C hepatitis. According to ECDC estimates, 3.2 million adults live with chronic B hepatitis and 1.8 million with chronic hepatitis C. Problem: the majority of them do not know that they are affected. Research suggests that more than 65 % of patients affected by hepatitis B and 62 % of adults suffering from hepatitis C are still not diagnosed and therefore do not receive care. This represents a danger to their health.
As a reminder, chronic B and C hepatitis can slowly damage the liver for years without causing symptoms, until they cause serious illnesses such as liver cirrhosis and cancer. These diseases appear after contact with infected biological liquids, for example during unprotected sex or contaminated injection equipment.
Vaccination, screening: “the importance of maintaining complete prevention programs”
The United Nations sustainable development objectives (SDG) undertake, by 2030, to eliminate viral hepatitis by diagnosing 90 % of people with hepatitis B and C chronic, treating 80 % of eligible people, reducing new infections by 90 % and 65 % hepatitis deaths. “However, current data show that the EU/EEE is not on the right track.”
Thus, prevention measures, such as vaccination, better access to screening and early access to care for infected diagnosed, should be adopted. “The vaccination of children against hepatitis B, associated with the prevention programs of mother-child transmission, has reduced the transmission of hepatitis B in the EU/EEE, in particular in the youngest. However, the recent increase in new cases of acute hepatitis B reported in the region could reflect an increasing transmission and underlines the importance of maintaining complete prevention programs.”