Elimination of hepatitis B and C from the concerns of public health is a possibility, according to a report from a panel of experts published in The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine and covered by Health Day.
According to the report, which was commissioned by the CDC, between 700,000 and 1.4 million Americans have chronic hepatitis B, and between 2.5 million and 4.7 million have chronic hepatitis C. Together the viruses kill roughly 20,000 people each year in the U.S.
Transmission of hepatitis B can be stopped with universal immunization. The three-dose vaccine provides 95 percent immunity and is long-lasting.
While hepatitis B is commonly transmitted through sexual contact, the C strain is primarily spread via intravenous drug use. Though there is no vaccine for hepatitis C, it can be cured. Curing infected injection drug users could decrease transmission and infection rates by 20 to 80 percent. Lessening drug addiction rates could also lower the rates of hepatitis C infection.
Eliminating hepatitis B and C as a public health problem is not the same as eradicating the disease. But the panel believes it's possible to greatly reduce the rates of transmission and to eliminate symptoms of the disease in those infected.
A second report tasked to the same panel and commissioned by the CDC will outline suggestions to achieve the possibilities put forth in this first report. The second report is slated for release in early 2017, according to Health Day.
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