About 300,000 Hong Kong residents will be offered free hepatitis B screenings early next year, as the city aims to meet a set of international goals to eliminate the disease as a public health threat by 2030.
The screening scheme will run in parallel with authorities’ other measures to tackle hepatitis, as Hong Kong launched its viral hepatitis action plan for the next five years.
“We can say that fighting hepatitis means tackling liver cancer at its root,” Dr Bonnie Wong Chun-kwan, a consultant on special preventive programmes at the Centre for Health Protection’s public health services branch, said.
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According to the Department of Health, 75 to 80 per cent of liver cancer cases in Hong Kong are linked to hepatitis B, while another three to six per cent are linked to hepatitis C.
The government has pledged to meet a set of goals by the World Health Organization to eliminate hepatitis as a health threat by 2030, including controlling the number of new hepatitis B and C infections to no more than two and five per 100,000 people, respectively.
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Other goals include diagnosing 90 per cent of patients with both strains of hepatitis and treating 80 per cent of them.