China Medical News

On July 28^th, which is this year's World Hepatitis Day, a health official from the National Health and Family Planning Commission said that, according to data collected by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, there are approximately 90 million people infected with the hepatitis B virus. However, the reported incidence of the disease has been decreasing in recent years. According to the 2014 statistics, the prevalence of hepatitis B infection in Chinese children aged 1~4 and 5~14, have both decreased by more than 60% from 2006, to 0.32% and 0.94% respectively.
The health official noted that the China's vaccination-based strategy to control the virus has helped significantly, and it has helped the country reach the goals set by the WHO to reduce HBV prevalence in children to less than 1% by 2017. The case load of hepatitis A in China also hit a record low in 2014.
However, the morbidity of hepatitis E has risen in the recent years, and the health official mentioned that China still has a long way to go in its battle against the disease. (Source: Xinhua)