Hong Kong rolls out its first scheme dedicated to eliminating viral hepatitis
- Programme worth more than HK$70 million a year will include subsidised antiviral treatment for some sufferers
- Plan also aims by to reduce incidence of the disease by 90 per cent and deaths by 65 per cent by 2030
The Hong Kong government has rolled out a host of measures worth more than HK$70 million (US$9 million) a year under an inaugural blueprint for combating viral hepatitis with the goal of rendering the city free of the chronic disease and stamping out all mother-to-child transmissions.
The measures include subsidised antiviral treatment for hepatitis C patients and infected pregnant women, checks on the efficacy of vaccines given to newborns of such mothers, enhanced training for medical staff and more specialised nursing clinics, according to Secretary for Food and Health Professor Sophia Chan Siu-chee.
“This action plan is really the first blueprint formulated to cope with viral hepatitis and it shows the importance attached by the government to the work of prevention, as well as the control of hepatitis,” Chan said in announcing the “Hong Kong Viral Hepatitis Action Plan 2020-2024”.
The government will work towards the goals set out by the World Health Organization to eliminate the disease as a major public health threat by 2030, with the rate of diagnosis and treatment coverage to reach 90 per cent and 80 per cent, respectively. The plan also aims by that time to reduce the incidence of the disease by 90 per cent and deaths by 65 per cent.
Hong Kong has about 540,000 cases of chronic hepatitis B and 22,000 cases of type C. There are also more than 1,500 deaths from liver cancer every year, the third leading type of cancer deaths in the city, which are mostly associated with those two virus types.