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Citizens of the New Territories West have little knowledge of preventing hepatitis, and 90% of the Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) carriers are unaware of their conditions, Hepatitis Free Generation, a local hepatitis-preventing center announced Friday.
To promote the idea of preventing hepatitis, the Hepatitis Free Generation raised a campaign in Tsuen Wan, which echoed the World Hepatitis Day on this Sunday.
The organization said that 6.7% of the 12,688 Hong Kong citizens they had tested in the past 10 years are HBV carriers. Among the 127 HBV carriers the organization had tested out in the New Territories West, 90% of them were informed for the first time that they are the carriers, much higher than the overall percentage in Hong Kong ---- 50% of them do not have the knowledge of their conditions.
Lacking of the awareness of HBV can lead to serious diseases, such as the liver cirrhosis or even cancer. According to the Hospital Authority of Hong Kong, the cancer of liver has become the third leading cancer killer of the city.
“There’re approximately 600,000 HBV carriers live in Hong Kong, George Lau, the founder of a local Hepatitis Research Foundation said, “at least 10% of them are at the risks to get deteriorated into a liver cancer.
“Now we have the medicament which can effectively control and cure the HBV, he said, “if the carriers are diagnosed in the early stage and get proper treatment, the liver cancer can be effectively prevented.
Ko Wing-man, the Secretary for Food and Health attended the campaign and demonstrated to the citizens how to get a quick test of the HBV at the venue.
“Since 1988, Hong Kong government has offered Hepatitis B vaccine to every new-born baby within 24 hours after their birth and the Chinese mainland started the injection since 2003, Ko said, “we should working focus on the Hong Kong citizens who was born before 1988 and the immigrants from mainland born before 2003, because they do not have the antibody.
The organization offered free tests of HBV on that day, a blood test that only takes only 15 minutes to know if the subject is a carrier.
According to the World Health Organization, the viral hepatitis is a group of infectious diseases known as Hepatitis A, B, C, D and E, which kills close to 1.4 million people every year. On this year’s World Hepatitis Day, WHO focuses on the fact that although the burden of disease caused by viral hepatitis is growing, it remains largely ignored or unknown to many policymakers, health workers and the public.
