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ECDC: Chronic hepatitis B, C affects 9 million Europeans

An estimated 4.7 million Europeans are living with chronic hepatitis B and nearly 4 million are living with chronic hepatitis C infection.

By Amy Wallace

July 26 (UPI) -- The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, or ECDC, estimates that approximately 9 million Europeans are impacted by chronic hepatitis B or C.

That breaks down to 4.7 million with chronic hepatitis B and 3.9 million living with chronic hepatitis C infection, and many do not even know they have the infection.

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July 28 is World Hepatitis Day and the ECDC is calling on leaders in Europe to improve testing, prevention interventions and linkage to treatment services to reach the target of eliminating viral hepatitis by 2030.

''Greater efforts are needed to reduce both the suffering and the costs that hepatitis inflicts across Europe," Vytenis Andriukaitis, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, said in a press release.

"The Commission is fully committed to helping Member States achieve the Sustainable Development goal of ending HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis and reducing viral hepatitis by 2030. Together, we will scale up our prevention and testing programs and reach out to the most vulnerable to reduce health inequalities. In order to tackle the underlying causes of the hepatitis epidemic we need to combine health instruments with social instruments and work together across health, social, and education policies.''

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Countries in the European Union and European Economic Area, or EU/EEA, reported nearly 60,000 newly diagnosed cases of hepatitis B and C, 24,573 cases of hepatitis B and 34,651 cases of hepatitis C.

An ECDC survey found significant variations across EU/EEA countries found the proportion of undiagnosed infections ranged between 45 percent to 85 percent for hepatitis B virus and between 20 percent and 89 percent for hepatitis C.

"There are highly effective drugs available to treat people infected with hepatitis B and C but the main bottleneck we see in Europe is the actual case detection: too many infections with viral hepatitis remain undiagnosed," ECDC Director Andrea Ammon said.

"An ECDC study showed that less than half of the responding EU/EEA countries have dedicated hepatitis B or C testing guidance in place and even fewer countries could provide estimates on their undiagnosed infected population," Ammon continued. "There is also a clear need for countries to improve the quality and completeness of surveillance data, especially on the route of transmission. ECDC is currently working on an evidence-based testing guidance to support EU countries in their attempt to achieve the elimination target by 2030."

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