• Submitted by: admin
• Health and Medicine
• 06 / 11 / 2010

HAVANA, June 10 (Xinhua) -- Cuba reported only four cases of acute hepatitis B in 2009, due to the massive and systematic immunization campaigns with the Cuban vaccine Heberbiovac HB, promoted by the national health system, said Thursday the official daily Granma.

According to the newspaper, the drug produced since the early 90s of the last century by the local Center for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering allows Cuba to work on the elimination of acute hepatitis B, considered as a serious medical-social problem in the world.

Granma said in 1992, 2,194 people were diagnosed with hepatitis B in the country, 1,344 in 1997, 34 in 2006, 17 in 2007 and 18 in 2008, while last year only four cases were reported, three of which aged between 25 and 59 years old and another one over 65.

The monitoring is done from samples of positive cases of hepatitis, taken for their study to the National Reference Laboratory for Tropical Medicine Institute Pedro Kouri, where the diagnosis is confirmed.

The strategy followed by the Ministry of Public Health, is based on the technical premise of "preventing before getting exposed to the virus." Therefore all children are immunized together with other risk groups.

Nowadays all Cubans under 28 are protected against the disease, the report said.

Acute hepatitis B is a liver severe infection caused by a virus acquired by direct contact with blood or other body fluids such as saliva and semen, or through perinatal transmission, i.e. from mother to child at birth and through breast feeding.

A percentage of patients suffering from this disease evolve towards becoming chronic, cirrhosis or liver cancer.

Source: Xinhua