Hepatitis B, C infection responsible for most liver cancer cases in Vietnam

Medical experts said at a seminar themed ‘Hepatitis B and C – Path to liver cancer’ held by the City International Hospital lately that 88 percent of liver cancer patients in Vietnam had had hepatitis B and C before.

At the seminar (Photo; SGGP)
At the seminar (Photo; SGGP)
The Southeast Asian country has over 125,000 fresh cancer cases annually and more than 90,000 of them died of the disease.
People with hepatitis B have an increased risk of liver cancer. Worse, according to experts, hepatitis B has become a leading cause of death killing 1.34 million people annually.
In 2017, it was estimated that over 40,000 Vietnamese people died because of hepatitis B and C while in the world, within 15 past years, the mortality rate due to viral hepatitis has gone to 22 percent.
According to the World Health Organization, Vietnam has high rate of hepatitis over 7 percent and hepatitis virus of 10-20 percent the whole population or 10 million Vietnamese people have hepatitis virus. Worse, in recent years, the country has 10,000 fresh cases of hepatitis.
Deputy Director of the City International Hospital Dr. Tran Quang Binh said that around 8 million Vietnamese people have cirrhosis and liver cancer and around 20 million others have hepatitis B and C, which leads to liver cancer.
In endemic areas, Hepatitis B virus infection occurs mainly mother to child transmission and during infancy with 90 percent, said Dr. Nguyen Tan Cuong, Director of the hospital.
Additionally, those who have a combination of four unhealthy lifestyle factors; smoking, poor diet, lack of exercise and drinking, sharing needles, eating food with aflatoxin will increase the risk of getting hepatitis, Dr. Cuong added.

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