Published 28 October 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b4420
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b4420

News

Plugging gaps in China’s hepatitis B prevention would be cost effective

Jane Parry

1 Hong Kong

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

A country-wide catch-up hepatitis B vaccination programme in China would save thousands of lives and be cost effective, research from Stanford University has shown (Hepatology 2009 Sep 9, doi:10.1002/hep.23310).

Vaccinating the estimated 150 million children aged 1-19 years who are currently unprotected will cost an estimated $423m (£260m; {euro}281m) but will save the economy $840m, by preventing eight million infections and 65 000 deaths, the researchers found.

Routine free vaccination of babies against the disease began only in 2002, and serological survey data show that 40% of children between 5 and 19 years remain unprotected, said Samuel So, professor of surgery and the Lui Hac Minh professor at Stanford and one of the study’s authors.

"In China, 50% to 60% of the population under the age of 19 have already either become chronically infected or have cleared the infection," said Dr So. "The only way to really . . . [Full text of this article]


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