Hepatitis B guidelines released By Chen Zhiyong (China Daily) Updated: 2005-12-12 05:23
The first professional guidelines on how to prevent and treat the hepatitis B
virus in China were released on Saturday.
The current arrival of more and more antiviral drugs onto the medical market
has brought feelings of both hope and chaos due to the relatively limited
knowledge Chinese doctors have on the treatment of hepatitis B. Irregular
treatment is inflicting heavy economic burdens on patients, hepatitis experts
have said.
"A professional treatment guideline is very important for both medical
workers and patients," said Zhuang Hui, academician of the Chinese Academy of
Engineering from Peking University and director of the Society of Hepatitis
Diseases, attached to the Chinese Medical Association.
More than 80 medical experts from the Society of Hepatitis Diseases and the
Infectious Diseases Society under the Chinese Medical Association have spent a
year working on the guidelines, with the help of advice from more than 1,000
clinical hepatitis doctors around the country.
The guidelines detail the effects of major anti-viral drugs with
recommendations of the most appropriate treatments.
"However, it should be noted that the guidelines only offer advise to doctors
in order to aid them when treating hepatitis B, they are not an obligatory
clinical rule. They should work out the best forms of treatment based on their
own clinical observations of individual cases," said Zhuang.
The consistency and success of treatment provided to hepatitis B patients by
expert practitioners in this field are worrying, according to Weng Xinhua,
director of the Society of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases attached to the
Chinese Medical Association.
Recent surveys conducted by China Foundation of Hepatitis Prevention and
Control and No 302 Hospital of PLA showed that 45 per cent of anti-viral
specialists were not fully aware of standard anti-viral treatment procedures. In
addition, only 19 per cent of hepatitis B patients were sticking to their
prescribed long-term anti-viral treatments.
Inconsistent treatment often brings unfavourable effects to patients, who
fail to receive successful treatment at a high cost both economically and in
terms of health, Weng said.
Currently many doctors are treating hepatitis B carriers with anti-viral
drugs that can lead to viral variations, thus failing to successfully treat
patients.
Experts have proposed that immunization is the most effective method of
curbing the spread of hepatitis B. In particular they have recommended
immunizations for new-borns and high-risk groups such as those frequently coming
into contact with blood, drug users and highly sexually active individuals.
(China Daily 12/12/2005 page2)
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