According to a 2023 WHO report, two-thirds of undiagnosed and untreated hepatitis B-infected population lives in the Western Pacific and South-East Asia region of the WHO.
Vaccination for hepatitis-B is considered effective in preventing infection and the chronic consequences of the disease, such as cirrhosis and liver cancer.
Prevalence of chronic hepatitis-B among the general population in the Western Pacific region is one of the highest in the world. In 2019, an estimated 5.92% of the adult population in this region was infected with hepatitis-B - 116 million people chronically infected - with 470,000 deaths. In the South-East Asia region, there were 260,000 hepatitis-B cases in 2019, with 180,000 deaths.
Deadly divide between the rich and not-so-rich nations
In most high- and upper-middle-income Asia-Pacific countries, almost all children aged one year had received the recommended hepatitis-B vaccination in 2021, meeting the WHO minimum threshold of 95% to avoid vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks.
In contrast, the average vaccination rate in lower-middle and low-income Asia-Pacific countries for vaccine-preventable diseases was around 75%, which is insufficient to ensure the interruption of disease transmission and protection of the population.
Despite poor quality data, STI burden is alarming
The overall availability and quality of data on sexually transmitted infections (STIs) remain weak in both the Western Pacific and Southeast Asia regions. However, what we do know is alarming enough: the number of syphilis cases was over 1.1 million in the Western Pacific and 350,000 in the Southeast Asia region in 2020. Syphilis is preventable and treatable, so this is another unacceptable situation.
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