Hepatitis B Vaccination Works in China

David Orenstein, October 19, 2009

A massive new program in China to provide “catch-up” inoculations against hepatitis B to more than 100 million unvaccinated children could prevent millions of infections, save tens of thousands of lives and return twice as much in savings to the Chinese economy as the program costs, according to a new study by engineering and medical researchers at Stanford University.

Hepatitis B is a pandemic in much of East Asia because it is easily transmitted from mother to child by blood or between sexual partners by other bodily fluids as well as blood. Meanwhile, the symptoms, until resulting diseases becomes life-threatening, are subtle, said Samuel So, MD, professor of surgery and the Lui Hac Minh Professor at Stanford, who is one of the study’s senior authors. Although many patients can fight off the virus, up to 300,000 a year die in China from hepatitis B-related liver cancer and other liver diseases.

Read more at the Stanford School of Medicine News Page.