Cancer of the liver is becoming the fastest-growing cancer type in many parts of the world, overtaking even lung cancer. Why? The hepatitis type B and C viruses and their link to liver cancer. To give you a sense of scale, hepatitis, which simply means inflammation of the liver, was responsible for 1.34 million cancer or cirrhosis deaths in 2015 alone. Two-hundred-and-fifty-seven million people live with chronic hep B infection and another 71 million live with hep C. In fact, while the number of people with tuberculosis and HIV are falling, the numbers of those with hepatitis are going up.
There has been a growing awareness and a move to concerted action to taken on what has become in some parts of the world an epidemic. The World Health Assembly, which governs the World Health Organisation, is targeting the elimination of viral hepatitis as a health threat by 2030. So how is that meant to happen and what are its chances of success?
Our guest on Up Close is physician and epidemiologist [Associate] Professor Ben Cowie, who has been involved in public health policy around viral hepatitis in Australia and internationally. He works in communicable disease epidemiology and surveillance at...
