Control of hepatitis B in China: prevention and treatment

Abstract

A high rate of chronic HBV infection in China is mainly the result of perinatal or early childhood transmission. Therefore, universal vaccination against HBV in infants has been very successful in the control of chronic HBV infection, with the prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen decreasing from nearly 10% to approximately 7% in the general population. Adoption of Good Clinical Practice and proper conduction of well-designed clinical trials on conventional and pegylated interferons and nucleos(t)ide analogs have generated important clinical data. The publication and promotion of the evidence-based national guidelines have greatly improved the standard of clinical practice on the prevention and treatment of chronic hepatitis B. The ongoing national key scientific projects on the optimization of vaccination strategy and current anti-HBV therapy will yield important clinical evidence. Inclusion of conventional and pegylated interferons and nucleos(t)ides into the new national reimbursement list will increase the availability and affordability of anti-HBV therapies, thereby further decreasing the morbidity and mortality associated with chronic HBV infection.

Keywords::

• China
• hepatitis B infection
• prevention
• therapy
• vaccination

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This work was partly supported by the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (2006AA02A410), Major State Basic Research Development Program of China (2007CB512802) and Municipal Key Laboratory of Beijing for Regulation of Liver Protection and Regeneration. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any industrial organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.