Jul 25 (IPS) – July 28th World Liver Disease Day, created to celebrate the life and work of Nobel Prize Winner Dr. Baruch Samuel Blumberg. Blumberg’s work contributed to the discovery of hepatitis B, and the development of a vaccine that can prevent infection with this infectious disease caused by bacteria. These findings changed the public health response to the prevention of liver cancer caused by hepatitis B.
The hepatitis B vaccine has been used for decades to save lives. Children are given the vaccine at birth to protect against hepatitis B virus infection, thereby reducing the risk of children developing chronic liver disease or liver cancer later in life. Many millions of people around the world today do not have the fear and trauma of living with hepatitis B because of the vaccine that Blumberg helped create.
About 95% of infants who develop hepatitis B will develop chronic disease, and about a quarter of them will eventually die of liver disease. This is why vaccination against hepatitis B is so important.
WHO recommends that all children receive the vaccine as soon as possible after birth, preferably within 24 hours, followed by two or three doses four weeks apart. This gives children 100% protection against hepatitis B infection and developing chronic liver disease or liver cancer later in life.
We highly commend GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, national governments and other international partners, who have made sure that more children around the world are vaccinated against the hepatitis B virus, especially in low-income countries.
My own children are among those who have benefited from these programs and Blumberg’s research, as they were vaccinated against Hepatitis B at birth.
Not all children are lucky, especially in Africa, where vaccines are not in stock, home births and weak health systems prevent them from receiving this life-saving intervention within 24 hours of birth.
Only 18% of African newborns will have received the hepatitis B vaccine at birth by 2022, compared to 90% in Asia, so strong efforts are needed to protect the next generation of children worldwide.
I did not receive the hepatitis B vaccine at birth, as the birth dose was recently introduced in many countries of the Global South. I was also not vaccinated when I was employed as a health care provider in a hospital – which is where I should have been protected but the place I was infected in 2004. I am lucky that I was diagnosed early, and I take medication every day to stop it. my courage in having cancer.
However, despite Blumberg’s success, hepatitis remains a deadly disease. It still causes more than 800,000 deaths worldwide each year, most of which are diagnosed late when they already have advanced liver disease.
Today, as we celebrate Blumberg’s birthday and celebrate World Hepatitis Day, we must ask ourselves why. We need to ask why there is still so little information about hepatitis worldwide. Why has this scientific breakthrough in detecting hepatitis B not been translated into eradicating the hepatitis B virus? Why have only 4% of hepatitis B patients been diagnosed while only 2.2% have been cured? Why has there been so much poor investment in many testing and treatment programs around the world to identify and put the “missing millions” into treatment?
We must say clearly that this is not acceptable. as a delay in diagnosis and treatment may lead to the development of many liver problems without being noticed. To end hepatitis by 2030, we need to intensify efforts to reduce deaths by 65%. This means that we MUST increase the level of screening to find undiagnosed people living with hepatitis B and C, most of whom do not know their status.
It is a great shame that I got the virus in a place where I should be safe and secure, the hospital. This is the fate of many health workers around the world and children who do not receive the hepatitis B vaccine to protect themselves from infection.
Baruch Bloomberg would be turning in his grave if he knew that despite the available vaccines and treatment there are many people who cannot get them because of poor funding from governments and donors around the world! We owe more to him and his memory.
The global community has an opportunity to turn off the faucet of new hepatitis B infections and save millions of children and the global community from the fear of hepatitis B liver cancer in the future. Let this World Hepatitis Day be the day we decide to honor Blumberg’s memory in action and words.
Danjuma Adda, MPH, is the executive director of the Center for Initiative and Development in Nigeria and one of the directors of the Aspen Institute. He was the committee chair for the 2024 World Hepatitis Summit and past president of the World Hepatitis Alliance.
© Inter Press Service (2024) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service
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