HEPA B A GROWING HEALTH CONCERN

Hundreds of thousands of Filipinos may already be infected with the
deadly Hepatitis B virus, but government health officials have no way
of knowing for sure. Worldwide, millions are believed to be infected
with Hepatitis B. If that percentage were true, the percentage of
Filipinos who have the liver-feeding virus would be staggering.

Hepatitis B is a potentially fatal liver disease. It may be
transmitted by infected mothers to their newborns; persons with
multiple sexual partners, household contacts of chronically infected
persons or users of injectible drugs. The virus is passed either
directly or indirectly from those who are already infected through
their body fluids.

The Department of Health is unable to keep more accurate statistics on
hepatitis because those who are infected may not know they have the
condition for decades. The overwhelming number of infections is far
from recent and many are just now learning that the menacing virus
infected their bodies long ago. Indeed, it can often take years for
symptoms to surface.

Ideally, a person will go to a doctor when he does not have any
symptoms and get himself tested. Most of the time, that just doesn't
happen. As a result, studies wind up counting very few actual cases.

The Asia-Pacific, which includes the Philippines, is a major concern
of international disease control organizations - 75 percent of the
350 million people worldwide who are carriers of the virus are found
in the region.

Anyone can get the Hepatitis B virus. If you want to know whether you
have the virus, you can have yourself tested. There is still an
effective treatment even if you're already infected.

The best way to prevent Hepatitis B infection is through vaccination.
In countries like the Philippines, it is recommended that infants be
vaccinated. For adults who have not received the vaccine, which only
became available in 1982, vaccination is valuable.

Hepatitis B is a huge health problem. If we don't know who is
infected, we will not able to study the population. If we don't know
what fraction of the population is infected, we cannot survey the
cases or intervene before people get sick.

Although trends and statistics confirm that there is a decline in the
number of new infections from the 1980s to 2001, the greatest decline
has happened among children and adolescents, most probably due to
routine vaccination against Hepatitis B virus.

People need to be told and they need to be tested. Many will need
treatment, and many will need to learn how to prevent further spread
of the disease.

As part of the celebration of Global Hepatitis B Week last Oct. 19-26,
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Phils. launched an information campaign on the
prevention and treatment of Hepatitis B, with special emphasis on the
importance of screening and vaccination.

Various companies and hospitals also participated in the GSK campaign
and their employees underwent Hepatitis B screening and
vaccination.

Among those which supported GSK in this endeavor were Smart
Communications, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.'s Binondo and Makati
branches, Amkor Anam, Icon Communications, Abenson's Pioneer branch,
and Levi Strauss.

Hospitals like San Juan de Dios, Olivarez General Hospital, Our Lady
of Pillar Medical Center, Victor Potenciano Medical Center, Bulacan
Provincial Hospital, Chong Hua Hospital, Davao Medical Center,
Veteran's Regional Hospital in Nueva Vizcaya and Nueva Ecija
Provincial Hospital also supported the campaign.

A lecture was also conducted for better understanding of Hepatitis B.
GSK also conducted a whole-day screening and vaccination for its
employees at its main office in Makati City.