Fighting against viral hepatitis: Lessons from Taiwan

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Hepatology. 2011 Jun 30. doi: 10.1002/hep.24500. [Epub ahead of print]

Fighting against viral hepatitis: Lessons from Taiwan.

Chen DS.

Source

Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University College of Medicine,

Hepatitis Research Center, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.

chends@....

Abstract

Viral hepatitis and its sequelae are important health problems worldwide,

including Taiwan. For the last 40 years, Taiwan's scientists and healthcare

givers have worked very hard in controlling them, and the results are excellent.

The author had a key role in planning and establishing the control program in

Taiwan, and participated in the endeavors from the very beginning. In this

perspective, Ding-Shinn Chen described how he started to get interested in

research as a medical student, his encounter with hepatitis B and C, how he and

colleagues started early detection of hepatocellular carcinoma, how he helped

Taiwan's Government form the Viral Hepatitis Control Program in 1981 and

implement it, and how the effectiveness of the Program in the decrease of

hepatitis B carriage and hepatocellular carcinoma was monitored. He also told

the story of why and how he pioneered a new therapy of using interferon-á plus

ribavirin to treat chronic hepatitis C in 1991. Hepatitis B viral load as the

risk factors of hepatocellular carcinoma and cirrhosis in hepatitis B surface

antigen carriers, and the prevention of the sequelae by antiviral therapies were

briefly reviewed. Finally, he pointed out the unresolved issues that need to be

tackled, and predicted the changes of the patterns of liver diseases in Taiwan

after mid-21st century, which is in part affected by the fight against viral

hepatitis initiated in early 1980s. CONCLUSION: The perspective illustrates

Taiwan's fight against viral hepatitis in the last 40 years. The experience can

be shared by other countries where the disease is equally prevalent. (HEPATOLOGY

2011.).

Copyright © 2011 American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.

PMID: 21721025 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Full Text Sources

Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Swets Information Services

[Guest guest]

Hepatology. 2011 Jun 30. doi: 10.1002/hep.24500. [Epub ahead of print]

Fighting against viral hepatitis: Lessons from Taiwan.

Chen DS.

Source

Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University College of Medicine,

Hepatitis Research Center, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.

chends@....

Abstract

Viral hepatitis and its sequelae are important health problems worldwide,

including Taiwan. For the last 40 years, Taiwan's scientists and healthcare

givers have worked very hard in controlling them, and the results are excellent.

The author had a key role in planning and establishing the control program in

Taiwan, and participated in the endeavors from the very beginning. In this

perspective, Ding-Shinn Chen described how he started to get interested in

research as a medical student, his encounter with hepatitis B and C, how he and

colleagues started early detection of hepatocellular carcinoma, how he helped

Taiwan's Government form the Viral Hepatitis Control Program in 1981 and

implement it, and how the effectiveness of the Program in the decrease of

hepatitis B carriage and hepatocellular carcinoma was monitored. He also told

the story of why and how he pioneered a new therapy of using interferon-á plus

ribavirin to treat chronic hepatitis C in 1991. Hepatitis B viral load as the

risk factors of hepatocellular carcinoma and cirrhosis in hepatitis B surface

antigen carriers, and the prevention of the sequelae by antiviral therapies were

briefly reviewed. Finally, he pointed out the unresolved issues that need to be

tackled, and predicted the changes of the patterns of liver diseases in Taiwan

after mid-21st century, which is in part affected by the fight against viral

hepatitis initiated in early 1980s. CONCLUSION: The perspective illustrates

Taiwan's fight against viral hepatitis in the last 40 years. The experience can

be shared by other countries where the disease is equally prevalent. (HEPATOLOGY

2011.).

Copyright © 2011 American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.

PMID: 21721025 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Full Text Sources

Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Swets Information Services