The silent infection that feeds an increase in liver cancer deaths

The Department of Federal Health proposes “a universal offer at the level of the Population of Population of hepatitis B with informed consent for adults”, according to a document of document published online.

He said that this would guarantee that all Australians knew their hepatitis status and would connect people to regular monitoring, treatment and education to prevent transmission.

Currently, pregnancy is the only time universal tests for hepatitis B.

The proposal to offer universal tests is a departure from the previous test guidelines intended for communities at risk, including people born in the North and Southeast Asia and Aborigines and Torres Strait Icelander People.

It is part of a federal government’s effort to eliminate hepatitis B as threat to public health by 2030. The new strategy will be released in the middle of the year.

The universal test is likely to be provided in contexts of primary care, such as GP clinics.

Todd Harper, CEO of the Council for Cancer, said that the deaths related to chronic hepatitis B were preventable through an increase in tests and clinical treatments.

“It is a devastating diagnosis that people can receive,” said Harper, adding that liver cancer was the most common seventh cause of cancer death in Australia.

He said that people with liver cancer diagnosis had a 23 % probability of surviving for five years compared to an average of 70 % for other tumors.

Many people can have hepatitis B for decades without the need for antiviral treatment. This is because their immune system is effective in suppressing the virus. But the virus can suddenly reactivate, escaping the control of the immune system, leading to the liver damage and significantly increasing the risk of liver cancer.

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The implementation of vaccines against universal hepatitis B for all children born in Australia since 2000 has reduced the local transmission and means that those under the age of 25 are protected against the virus. The countries of the nearby regions have also launched immunization programs similar at the same time.

Lien Tran discover that he had hepatitis B when he was 18 and about to undertake the journey of a lifetime. It was the early 2000s and the aspiring health researcher of Vietnam had won a scholarship to study in Europe, but he had to skip a final obstacle: a mandatory health check.

A Hanoi doctor told the devastating news to tran.

“He told me I had hepatitis B and I was unable to go abroad,” he recalls.

Tran refused his scholarship (he discovered years after he would still have been allowed to study abroad) and spent many months to think that he would die. Her grandmother had died of liver cancer, that the family suspected was linked to hepatitis B. His mother also lived B.

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The fear of tran that was about to die was replaced compliant after studying the online infection. It was not until she married a decade later and started thinking of having children who started monitoring her infection regularly. The two trammith’s children received hepatitis B immunizations and antibodies in frosts at birth to make sure they don’t contract the disease. It does not need to take antiviral drugs.

“The hepatitis B family line stops with me,” he said.

Tran emigrated to Australia with his family a decade ago and is co-founder of hepatitis B Voices Australia, a beneficial organization led by people affected by the condition that aims to improve health results.

“We want people to stop feeling stigmatized,” he said.

The CEO of hepatitis Australia Lucy Clynes said that hepatitis B was not part of the routine blood tests, so many people were not aware that they had until serious damage to the liver had occurred.

“Test and connection of people to treatment … it can significantly reduce the risk of liver cancer and other serious complications,” he said.

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