China to Prevent Hepatitis C

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China to Prevent Hepatitis C

Beijing, Oct 27 (Prensa Latina) China declared near 40 million nationals carriers of hepatitis C a significant threat to national public health.

Zhuang Hui, director of the Society of Hepatic Diseases, called to raise public awareness to prevent further contagion.

The malady spreads via sexual intercourse, infected needles, blood transfusion, organ transplant and intravenous injection.

The National Center for Disease Control and Prevention registered 60,000 new carriers in 2005, adding that 50 to 85 percent of them will ultimately develop the disease.

Laboratories do not make a routine analysis to check for hepatitis C and it is sometimes very difficult to detect in an infected patient because the symptoms are much less acute than in other types of hepatitis, however Zhuan Hui warned this does not mean it is less dangerous as it can evolve to chronic cases of cirrhosis or liver cancer.

The official called for control measures for risk groups such as health workers, drug users, promiscuous people and blood donation recipients, and for the population in general to become more careful.

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