VIDEO: Prevention ‘always better than a cure’ for hepatitis B virus infection
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In a Healio video exclusive, Jeff Baxter, president and CEO of VBI Vaccines, discusses the current burden of hepatitis B virus infection and shares updates on prevention and treatment strategies for Hepatitis Awareness Month.
As of 2019, the WHO estimates that nearly 300 million people worldwide are chronically infected with HBV, with an estimated 1.1 million deaths each year, Baxter said. The CDC reports that 2.2 million are chronically infected in the U.S.
“The CDC estimates that, incredibly, 68% of people with chronic HBV infection are unaware of their status,” Baxter said. “Hepatitis B is actually known as the silent killer, and the reason for that is that many people get infected much earlier in life, perhaps between age 18 to 35 years, but often symptoms are not seen until individuals reach their 40s and 50s.”
Although it is difficult to determine the full economic burden in the U.S., Baxter noted that an estimated $1 billion is spent each year in hospital-related treatment costs. And with “no broadly effective functional cure” and “significant lack of infection status awareness,” he said, prevention remains the most effective way of fighting HBV.
“Prevention is always better than a cure,” Baxter continued. “We will only win this fight against hepatitis B by all working together with our health care providers, with the public health bodies and also as an industry progressing toward a functional cure.”
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