Mao Jiangsen, a professor with the Zhejiang Provincial Academy of Medical Science, said that in the recent ten years, more than 100 million Chinese have been inoculated with an hepatitis A vaccine.

"The vaccine works by improving the enteric immunity," said Mao,"patients can become lifelong immune after one or two inoculations."

The vaccine, which has been named the "live attenuated A vaccine", was developed by Mao in 1988. In 1993, Mao gained the highest honor in Chinese medicine for the vaccine.

According to Mao, hepatitis A is dropping by an annual rate of 22 percent in China, and in areas where the vaccine is prevalent, there has been an annual drop of 99 percent.

"In some places, hepatitis A cases have already been eliminated among children below 15 years old," Mao said.

According to Mao, the vaccine has been listed by the Ministry of Health as an effective remedy for hepatitis A and will be applied more readily.

Hepatitis A has long been a common enteric contagion in China. The number of sufferers amounted to over one million each year before the 1990s.

(21dnn.com)