Tomorrow, July 28, will be World Hepatitis Day (WHD), which is an international day set aside by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to bring awareness to the debilitating effects associated with hepatitis and the five main types of the hepatitis virus.
Hepatitis, simply elucidated, is an inflammation of the liver which, depending on the type, can be treatable or the condition can progress further, leading to cirrhosis of the liver and even cancer. Research on hepatitis has revealed that it can be caused by external infections from toxic substances, alcohol and certain drugs, among other factors. However, hepatitis is most commonly caused by the five main types of viruses, referred to as types A, B, C, D and E respectively.
The Hepatitis A (HAV) and E (HEV) Viruses are transmitted through the consumption of contaminated water or food and is prevalent in poor, developing – and in the case of HEV developed – countries where sanitation is poor. Both of them are life-threatening, but as it pertains to HAV there are safe and effective vaccines, while with HEV there are vaccines, but they are reportedly not widely available.
As it pertains to the Hepatitis B Virus (HBV), this is transmitted through exposure to infective blood, semen, and other body fluids. This virus can also be transferred from mother to child and family to infant in early childhood and through the use of infected needles, as well as HBV-contaminated blood. There are effective vaccines available to prevent HBV and in Guyana’s case, infants receive the first dose of the HBV vaccine within 24 hours of birth.
Additionally, persons who are infected with the HBV are susceptible to the Hepatitis D Virus (HDV) since it only occurs within the HBV infected. The presence of both the HBV and HDV exacerbates the disease and its conditions. The silver lining here is that the HBV vaccine will provide protection against the HDV infection.
The Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) is also transmitted through exposure to infective blood, similar to HBV; however, unlike HBV, the HCV has no vaccine. That is why it is recommended that needles are not shared, that tattoos are done with sterile piercing tools, and that persons practise safe sex habits.
Because of the debilitating effects of the disease, with some 400 million people around the world infected with Hepatitis B or C, and with most of the persons unaware that they have the disease, there have been increased calls from international health bodies for countries to proliferate awareness of the disease, so that persons who have not been vaccinated will waste no time in doing so.
There are also safe health practices that countries are urged to implement such as the screening of donated blood for HBV and HCV, screening of all pregnant mothers for HBV, employing a national strategy exclusively focused on the prevention and control of viral Hepatitis and setting up of an established department for the disease, among others.
As it pertains to Guyana, while there is no written plan to exclusively tackle the prevention and control of viral hepatitis and no apparent designated department, Guyana, like most of the Caribbean and Latin American countries, has mechanisms in place as the ones listed above.
However, according to UN figures, the number of people with Hepatitis B or C is more than 10 times the number of people infected with HIV. Additionally, only “1 in 20 persons with viral hepatitis know they have it; and just 1 in 100 with the disease is being treated”.
So, clearly there is more that needs to be done, especially if the theme for this year’s global campaign, which is “Elimination”, and the theme for WHD, which is “Know Hepatitis; Act Now,” are to respectively be realised.
The WHO deciding body, the World Health Assembly in its meeting in May of this year had called for the treating of “eight million people for Hepatitis B or C by 2020, to reduce new viral hepatitis infections by 90 per cent, and to decrease the number of deaths by 65 per cent in 2030, as compared with 2016. These targets are part of the first-ever Global Health Sector Strategy on viral hepatitis.”
