About 8.7 Vietnamese people infected with hepatitis B
Vietnam is estimated to have 8.7 million people infected with hepatitis B while the number for hepatitis C are 1 million, according to the Ministry of Health (MoH)’s Department for Preventive Medicine.
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In Vietnam, hepatitis B is transmitted mainly from mother to children while hepatitis C is spread via blood. These two types of hepatitis are main reasons for cirrhosis of liver, liver cancer, and deaths relating to viral hepatitis.
According to the WHO, hepatitis B and C can be prevented by vaccination, including a dose within 24 hours after birth. In Vietnam, the hepatitis B vaccination rate reached 95 percent.
Vietnam is one of 36 countries in the world issuing a national plan to fight hepatitis. The plan puts forward specific measures like increasing information-education-public communication work to raise public awareness, using good models to increase coverage of vaccination against hepatitis B for newborns within 24 hours after birth, and screening for early detection of hepatitis B and C cases among high-risk groups.
