Get vaccinated. Be careful with whom you make love.
That was the message hundreds of Shanghai local residents got
on Sunday as the city Health Bureau and local doctors promoted
China's Hepatitis B Education Day, city officials said.
Consultations were available on Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall and at
other locations throughout the city.
Hepatitis B is a form of hepatitis caused by a DNA virus that
lingers in the blood and has a long incubation period. It is
usually transmitted by sexual contact and injection or ingestion of
infected blood or other bodily fluids.
But in China, hepatitis B is spread mainly by infected mothers to
their newborn children, doctors said. "Those infected at a very
young age are more likely to develop a serious, chronic infection,"
said Yang Jianjun, spokesman for the city Health Bureau's Division
of Diseases Control.
So
newborns and children must be the focus of any program to combat
hepatitis B, added Dr. Wu Shanmin of Shanghai Infectious Diseases
Hospital.
Since 1986, more than 700,000 local children have received the
hepatitis-B vaccination.
"Now, more than 95 percent of new-borns and 90 percent of
youngsters have been vaccinated," Yang said. "The rate of infection
among children has decreased from 7 percent to 1 percent, which
means the program has been successful."
According to city health officials, hepatitis B is prevalent in
China. Since 1949, about 700 million Chinese have suffered from the
disease, and now there are 120 million hepatitis-B carriers
nationwide, they said. An estimated 20 percent will suffer from
chronic liver damage, including cancer of the liver, health
officials said.
In
Shanghai, 7 million people have suffered from hepatitis B since
1949, health officials said.
Each year, an estimated 2,000 people in Shanghai become infected
with hepatitis B, said city health officials.
(eastday.com
09/18/2001)