Millions of Vietnamese have hepatitis without knowing

Information was shared by Assoc.Prof.Dr. Bui Huu Hoang, Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City Medical Association, Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City Association Lighting hope for infectious diseases In Hanoi, March 20.

It is estimated that about 7.6 million Vietnamese infected with hepatitis B virus, but now more than 1.6 million people diagnose the disease and about 45,000 people have been treated. Similarly, only about 60,000 people are diagnosed with hepatitis C and very few cases of access to therapeutic among nearly one million cases.

Vietnam also belongs to the 10 countries with the highest number of hepatitis B and C infections in the world. It is estimated that about 40 million Vietnamese have no immunity or have not been vaccinated with hepatitis B.

Meanwhile, many statistics show that about 80% of liver cancer cases are due to hepatitis B, C. The number of liver cancer cases has been increasing rapidly in recent years. This type of cancer often has bad prognosis, low life time. In Vietnam, liver cancer is leading in the number of deaths with more than 23,000 cases each year, according to the International Cancer Research Agency (Globocan).

“Hepatitis B and C chronic silently causes damage to the liver, which is at risk of progressing into complications of cirrhosis, liver cancer when not well controlled,” said Associate Professor Hoang.

In liver cancer deaths, over 50% of hepatitis B virus, and 26% due to hepatitis C. Most patients detect the disease in the late stage, no longer able to treat effectively. According to the forecast, the ratio of cirrhosis and liver cancer will continue to increase if not expanding diagnosis and treatment. Viral hepatitis test can save the patient’s life and is an important first step to prevent infection.

Vietnam is approaching the goal of eliminating hepatitis by 2030. One of the big challenges for the viral hepatitis prevention program is that the proportion of people recognizing infection is still low. According to a survey in 2024, about 66% of participants believe that the test of hepatitis B and C virus is not important and their health is fine. The previous survey of the Ministry of Health also showed that more than 52% of people had never known hepatitis B or C.

In addition, the barrier also comes from the ability to pay the patient low, there is no screening program, has not been covered by insurance for screening, testing of virus load is still very limited, many provinces do not have HBV and HCV load tests.

According to MSc Nguyen Bao Toan, Head of the Department of Testing, Medic Center of Ho Chi Minh City, one of the current challenges is the screening of hepatitis B virus B with regular HBsAg tests that are not enough to assess the infection. Some people infected with the virus for a long time, this antigen concentration decreases, and the tests cannot be identified exactly. Therefore, many cases need to be tested for the triplet of HBsAg, Anti-HBC, Anti-HBS, but there are still many places that have not yet implemented this technique.

Another significant difficulty is that the cost of treating hepatitis is still high. In which patients with hepatitis B cost about 80,000-1,300,000 VND/month and must be treated for a lifetime. Hepatitis C needs treatment for 12 weeks with about 20-21 million VND, the insurance has only paid 50%. In addition, international aid programs are decreasing, causing much influence on disease prevention.

According to the guidance of the Ministry of Health in 2019, pregnant women at the first prenatal check -ups are required to filter HBV infection, along with HIV and syphilis. Up to now, the number of pregnant women screened for hepatitis B of the whole country is only 60-70%. There is no data on the number of pregnant women who are screened 24 weeks before pregnancy – the time to prevent the prophylaxis for HBV from mother to child if HBV DNA is high.