Halting hepatitis

For 10-year-old Zhang Damei and other students like her, school isn't just about reading, writing and mathematics - one of their most important recent lessons could potentially save their lives.

Thanks to a program sponsored bypharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb, they are learning about the symptoms of hepatitis B and how it spreads.

Even her teacher was learning for the first time that the blood-borne disease can be transmitted via body fluids and also by a pregnant mother to her baby.

"I always thought that infectious diseases are transmitted like a cold," says Zhang, adding that she now knows that hepatitis B vaccinations are a must and common sense health rules include not sharing toothbrushes and avoid touching other people's blood if they are wounded.

Viral hepatitis is inflammation of the liver caused by a virus. Several different viruses, named the hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E viruses, cause viral hepatitis.

All of these viruses cause acute, or short-term, viral hepatitis. The hepatitis B, C, and D viruses can also cause chronic hepatitis, in which the infection is prolonged, sometimes lifelong. Chronic hepatitis can lead to cirrhosis, liver failure and liver cancer.

Hepatitis B is spread through contact with infected blood and body fluids, through sex with an infected person, and from mother to child during childbirth.

Experts say children like Zhang, ages 5 to 14 are prime carriers of the hepatitis B surface antigen and most are in primary schools.

In Zhang's Guyuan Zhaike Primary School, located at the remote area of northwestern China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region, Bristol-Myers Squibb's hepatitis B health education program is for teachers, students and their parents.

The health education project is not only intended to reduce their risks of infection to hepatitis but also to improve their overall health education skills and to develop ways to carry out hepatitis B-related health education in other cities and rural areas with an eye towards seeing it adopted in China's long-term educational policies.

Begun last November in Beijing, the two-year project was extended to Gansu province and Ningxia in May and June respectively.

It's expected that about 130,000 pupils and 6,000 teachers will benefit directly from the program while more than 260,000 others, mainly parents of students, will also benefit through their children's knowledge, according to the US-based drug company.

The program's first step was teacher training conducted by experts invited by the Chinese Foundation of Hepatitis Prevention and Control (CFHPC). Additionally, schools involved hold various interactive activities centered around the health theme such as drama performances and painting contests.

According to statistics released by China's Ministry of Health in April, a nationwide serum epidemiological investigation conducted in 1992 showed the incidence of the hepatitis B surface antigen carrier was 9.75 percent, which dropped 26.37 percent to 7.18 percent in 2006.

"Though some progress has been made, the situation is far from perfect, given the overall poor general knowledge and the fact that there is a risk an epidemic may rebound," says Rui Jian'guo, coordinator of the Bristol-Myers Squibb hepatitis B education program in Ningxia and deputy president of Ningxia Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

If sanitation awareness among the children can be taught, it can go a long way to reduce the potential infection rate both within and outside the school, Rui says.

Bristol-Myers Squibb says that making an impact on China's on-campus health education policies is one of the key targets of the program. "We expect to explore models of promoting the hepatitis B-related health education and cooperation among multiple authorities from the policy-making perspective," says Iris Zhu, a spokeswoman for Bristol-Myers Squibb China.

In addition to the primary school education program, the company has been cooperating with CFHPC on a range of hepatitis prevention programs, with total investment exceeding 10 million yuan.

In 2007, Bristol-Myers Squibb pooled $340,000 in a three-year project in Shanghai, to educate migrant workers about hepatitis and provide free vaccinations to healthcare employees who are at high risk of hepatitis infection.

Sponsored by the company and organized by CFHPC, a public welfare hepatitis-prevention poster design contest was held in 100 universities nationwide with $70,000-plus of the fund involved.

In 2002, the pharmaceutical manufacturer began a mother-to-baby hepatitis B transmission prevention and control project. In the same year the Chinese government also accepted the new-born babies' hepatitis B vaccination as part of the officially planned immunity program. Bristol-Myers Squibb donated $500,000 to promote the policy.

Another of Bristol-Meyers Squibb's big contributions to China's hepatitis prevention and control was sponsorship of a nationwide survey and a report on hepatitis infection conditions in China and related issues, which was conducted by CFHPC in 2005. It has provided an overall and extensive review for governmental, professional institutions and pharmaceutical enterprises about the state of hepatitis in China.

Entering China in 1982, the world's leading pharmaceutical company set up the first Sino-American pharmaceutical joint venture here.

During the last 20-plus years, it has promoted nearly 40 prescription medicines and OTC (over-the-counter) brands to the Chinese market and established a strong research and development capacity in China.

One of its recent successes is Baraclude (Entecavir) - a treatment for adult chronic hepatitis B. It was promoted to the Chinese market in 2006 and has become the No 2 player in this sector behind GlaxoSmithKline.

(China Daily 10/13/2008 page8)