July 25 (IPS) – July 28e is World Hepatitis 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 could prevent infection with this infectious viral disease. These discoveries revolutionized the public health response to preventing liver cancer that hepatitis B causes.
The hepatitis B vaccine has been used to save lives for decades. Babies receive the vaccine at birth to protect them from infection with the hepatitis B virus, reducing the risk that children will develop chronic liver disease or liver cancer later in life. Millions of people around the world are free today from the fears and traumas of living with hepatitis B because of the vaccine Blumberg helped develop.
About 95% of infants who get hepatitis B develop a chronic infection and about a quarter of them will eventually die from liver disease. That is why vaccinating infants against hepatitis B is so important.
The WHO recommends that all babies receive the vaccine as soon as possible after birth, preferably within 24 hours, followed by two or three doses four weeks apart. This gives babies about 100% protection against infection with hepatitis B and against developing chronic liver disease or liver cancer later in life.
Tribute to GAVI, the vaccine alliancenational governments and other international partners, who have ensured that many children around the world have been vaccinated against the hepatitis B virus, especially in low- and middle-income countries.
My own children have also benefited from these programs and Blumberg’s research, as they were vaccinated against hepatitis B at birth.
Not all babies are so lucky, especially in Africa, where out-of-stock vaccines, home births and weak health systems mean they can’t get this life-saving intervention within 24 hours of birth.
Only 18% of African infants will have received the hepatitis B birth dose vaccine at birth in 2022compared to 90% in Asia. More intensive efforts are needed to protect the next generation of children everywhere.
I was never given the hepatitis B vaccine when I was born, as the birth dose was only introduced relatively recently in most countries in the Global South. I was also not vaccinated when I worked as a healthcare worker in a hospital – where I should have been protected, but I was infected in 2004. I am fortunate to have been diagnosed early, and I take medication daily to prevent my liver from developing cancer.
Despite Blumberg’s breakthroughs, hepatitis is still a deadly disease. It still kills more than Every year 800,000 people die worldwide, the mMost of them are diagnosed too late, when they already have advanced liver disease.
Today, as we commemorate Blumberg’s birthday and mark World Hepatitis Day, we must ask ourselves why this is so. We must ask ourselves why there is still so little awareness of hepatitis worldwide. Why has this scientific breakthrough of the discovery of hepatitis B not translated into the elimination of the hepatitis B virus? Why have oonly 4% of hepatitis B patients have been diagnosed, while only 2.2% have been treated? Why are there have such poor investments been made in mass testing and treatment programs around the world to identify and treat the “millions of missing people”?
We need to be clear that this is not acceptable, as delays in testing and treatment are likely to lead to many more liver complications developing undetected. To eliminate hepatitis by 2030, we need to scale up efforts to reduce deaths by 65%. This means we MUST scale up testing to find undiagnosed populations living with hepatitis B and C, most of whom do not know their status.
It is a great shame that I contracted the virus in a place where I should be safe and protected, the hospital. This is the fate of many healthcare workers around the world and babies who do not receive the hepatitis B vaccine to protect them from infection.
Baruch Bloomberg would turn in his grave if he knew that despite the vaccines and treatments available, there are so many people who do not have access to them due to poor funding from governments and donors around the world! We owe more to him and his memory.
The global community has the opportunity to turn off the tap of new hepatitis B infections and save millions of children and the global community from the fear of liver cancer that could be attributed to hepatitis B in the future. Let this World Hepatitis Day be the day we resolve to honor Blumberg’s memory in words and deeds.
Danjuma Adda, MPHis the Executive Director of the Centre for Initiative and Development in Nigeria and a Senior Fellow at Aspen Institute. He was the Committee Chair of the 2024 World Hepatitis Summit and the former President of the World Hepatitis Alliance.
© Inter Press Service (2024) — All rights reservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service
