The government should establish a national policy on eradicating hepatitis B in Taiwan, members of the Legislative Yuan’s Health, Welfare and Environment Foundation said yesterday.
Taiwan has the highest hepatitis B mortality rate in Asia at 22 per 100,000 people, said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Ching-hui (陳菁徽), a member of the bipartisan foundation, citing data from the Coalition for Global Hepatitis Elimination.
The rate at which people with hepatitis B in Taiwan receive proper care is 28 percent, lower than Japan’s 32.08 percent and Singapore’s 30.7 percent, Chen said.
Photo: CNA
The Ministry of Health and Welfare should collate nationwide data on carriers of the disease — which affects the liver — and provide publicly funded screenings for people who have not been vaccinated and were born before 1986, KMT Legislator Wan Mei-ling (萬美玲) said.
That would ensure that Taiwan lives up to the WHO’s 2030 goal of reducing new hepatitis infections by 90 percent and deaths by 65 percent from 2016 levels, a strategy endorsed by all WHO member states, Wan said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Cheng-hsu (王正旭) said that the Ministry of Labor and the health ministry must discuss how to collaborate on making hepatitis B and C screenings part of for labor health exams.
DPP Legislator Lin Yue-chin (林月琴) said that private-sector data showed that nationwide hepatitis B screening coverage is less than 50 percent, and urged the government to devise policies to foster public awareness and prevention of the disease.
National Taiwan University Hospital vice superintendent Kao Chia-horng (高嘉宏) said that symptoms in the liver only become obvious when the organ is more than 70 percent damaged.
The initial stages of hepatitis B and C have few noticeable symptoms and are easily overlooked, costing people the opportunity for early treatment, Kao said.
Hsu Yao-chun (許耀峻), a doctor at E-Da Hospital, said that regulations should be relaxed and people should be allowed to discuss with doctors whether they should be on medication for life or when it is appropriate to stop.
National Health Insurance (NHI) Administration Director-General Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said that the government is examining how to best provide medication to groups that would benefit the most.
Shih said people can ask the hospital to forward their medical history to the NHI system, allowing the doctors to access the information.
Health Promotion Administration Deputy Director Wei Shi-lun (魏璽倫) said that her agency could help promote awareness and step up screening, but people would have to be diagnosed and undergo treatment if the nation is to reach the goal of eliminating hepatitis.
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