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Over one million deaths every year in the world, but many could be prevented. Italy is an example for hepatitis B. Hepatitis C can be eradicated but it is necessary to identify those who have the HCV virus and do not know it. The Viral campaign with influencers is underway
Worldwide, according to estimates by the World Health Organization, approximately three thousand people die of hepatitis every day and more than eight thousand contract hepatitis B or C. Each year, hepatitis B and hepatitis C together cause more than one million deaths and three million new infections. But there is also good news: many deaths and infections can be prevented. Hence the WHO message on the occasion of the world day against hepatitis, which occurs on July 28: take care of your liver, an organ that works in silence and performs over 500 vital functions every day.
Take care of the liver
We only have one life and we only have one liver. And hepatitis can devastate both recalls the WHO, which has the goal of eradicating the disease by 2030 even if it seems increasingly distant. To have a healthy liver it is essential to reduce alcohol, achieve the right weight, treat hypertension, manage diabetes, as well as prevent hepatitis B and C, the most dangerous.
For hepatitis B, Italy is an example, given the compulsory vaccination at birth introduced in 1991, thanks to which the virus is almost absent in the under 40 population, although it is still found in other age groups and in subjects not born in Italy – he explains Professor Massimo Mastroianni, president of SIMIT, the Italian Society of Infectious and Tropical Diseases -. HCV, thanks to the new direct-acting antiviral drugs, can be definitively eradicated in 98 percent of people, quickly and without side effects, but it is necessary to bring out the underground and quickly start patients on treatment.
Correct messages, to convey them to influencers
Dr. Alessandra Mangia, head of the Departmental Hepatology Unit of the IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza of San Giovanni Rotondo underlines: The availability of drugs capable of healing those infected with HCV makes the promotion of correct messages even more urgent: it is essential to spread information on the test and risk factors so as to find submerged infections and drastically reduce the circulation of the virus.
On the occasion of the world day, the Viral campaign starts: let’s make the knowledge of hepatitis viral created by Gilead Sciences with the patronage of scientific societies and patient associations involved in this area, which involves a series of influencers who are the spokesperson for awareness messages from own Instagram profiles, with posts and stories to promote awareness of viral hepatitis.
The focus of the campaign in particular on hepatitis C, the most widespread form of viral hepatitis in Italy: it is estimated that there are one hundred thousand compatriots with advanced liver disease caused by hepatitis C and not diagnosed – most are between 60 and 70 years – and another 280,000 with active HCV infection – average age: 46 years – unaware of being ill because without symptoms.
Missed diagnoses also in Italy. Why are screenings needed
In our country, many still do not know that they suffer from hepatitis. Professor Vincenza Calvaruso, national secretary of Aisf, the Italian association for the study of the liver, says: There are two paths that specialists from all over the world are taking to counter the problem of hepatitis: on the one hand, diagnostic tests and treatment, increasingly rapid and simplified, to be carried out within the hepatological centres; on the other, screening activities to discover the underground. The problem, in fact, is that it is often not easy to recognize the onset of the disease, especially in asymptomatic subjects. For this reason, screening activities are carried out in our country above all in the categories at risk, i.e. the population in prisons and subjects with intravenous drug addiction, as well as among those born between 1969 and 1989, although we specialists ask to broaden this age range, involving all adults born from 1943 onwards.
On the occasion of World Hepatitis Day, Simit and Aisf are asking to renew the funds for screening for Hepatitis C which expire on December 31, 2023 and to expand the age cohorts of the population to be tested.
July 27, 2023 (change July 27, 2023 | 20:05)
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