Expert Predicts China's Ability to Eliminate Hepatitis A in 20 Years

It's announced by a medical science research institute that China is fully able to eliminate hepatitis A.

The 65-year-old expert in the study of virology, Mao Jiangsen, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), who has devoted himself to the research of live poison-reducing vaccine of hepatitis A for 20 years, said confidently, "This target can be achieved in 20 years after hard endeavor."

Hepatitis A is a kind of intestinal infectious disease with high incidence in some areas of China. Before the 1990s, over 1 million Chinese people contracted such disease each year. Shanghai, the largest city of China was once plagued by hepatitis A which affected more than 300,000 people. In 1978, Professor Mao Jiangsen, who had long been engaged in the study of virology, was resolved to overcome the knotty problem concerning the prevention and treatment of hepatitis. After 10 years of hard work, he finally got the seeds of live vaccine in 1988. Around 1993, his research achievement won the highest prize in the field of Chinese science and technology ¡ª¡ª the State Invention Prize. Mao said: "in the past 10 years, some 100 million Chinese people have been inoculated with live poison-reducing vaccine of hepatitis A. It is used in all areas of China except Taiwan Province."

Through the inoculation of vaccine of hepatitis A, the incidence of hepatitis A in China is decreasing at an annual rate of 22 percent. In the areas where vaccine of hepatitis is widely used, the incidence rate of such disease has dropped by 99 percent, and that of the disease among the children aged between one and 15 has fallen to zero in the past six years.

At present, the authoritative experts in the field of virology and epidemiology, after examining the effect of such vaccine in the past 10 years, gave it high evaluation. This achievement has currently been listed as a key item for popularization in the program by the Ministry of Health.



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