A doctor examines a hepatitis patient at Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The Ministry ofHealth has reported that nearly one million Vietnamese people are infected withthe hepatitis C virus (HCV).
According to recent statistics by the PreventiveMedicine Department, 20,000 people die of liver cancer each year in Vietnam, ofwhich untreated hepatitis B and HCV are the leading causes of cirrhosis andliver cancer.
Ninety percent of people with HCV are not awareof the infection. It is often called a ‘silent killer’ because it has noobvious symptoms but can be extremely dangerous and, in some cases, lifethreatening, medical experts said.
The ministry said the number of deaths caused byhepatitis B and C was the same as the number of people dying from HIV/AIDS andtuberculosis in Vietnam.
There are vaccines to prevent hepatitis A and B,however, there is no vaccine for HCV. There are many new medicines that bringthe cure rate up to 95 percent.
However, due to high cost, many infected peopledo not have access to new drugs and have to live with it, leading to cirrhosisand liver cancer.
Many new drugs which are effective in treatinghepatitis C are not covered by health insurance, causing difficulties forpatients, said Nguyen Van Kinh, Director of the Central Tropical Hospital.
Hepatitis C patients in Vietnam account forabout 7 percent of the population but only 0.1 percent (6,000-8,000 patients)of them have access to treatment.
“The Ministry of Health allows using new drugsin HCV treatment in Vietnam and the rate of recovery can be up to 90 percent.It also has fewer side effects and the time of treatment and costs arereduced,” Kinh said.
At present, the average cost for a stage oftreatment was 45 million VND over three months, nearly a third cheaper thanthat for old medicines, he said.
Kinh also suggested the new drugs should becovered by public health insurance so hundreds of thousands of patients canaccess HCV treatment.
Dam Hieu Trung, deputy director of VietnamSocial Security’s centre of health insurance assessment and multi-level paymentin the northern region, said public health insurance has still paid for somemedicines for the treatment of hepatitis C.
The centre was still waiting for the HealthMinistry’s decision on new drugs because the ministry was adjusting the list ofdrugs covered by public health insurance, he said.
Hepatitis C was a common disease but treatmentwas expensive, said Le Van Phuc, deputy head of the health insurance policyimplementation department.
Health insurance funds could not afford to paythe full cost of treatment for patients with hepatitis C virus with an annualinsurance premium of about 1 million VND.
“Ourselves and the Health Ministry areconsidering adding new drugs to the list covered by public health insurancebecause it takes time to carefully evaluate their effectiveness, cost, andbalance with existing health insurance funds,” Phuc said.-VNS/VNA
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