According to a report from the World Health Organization, Vietnam is one of the countries with a high rate of hepatitis B and C infections and a high disease burden related to hepatitis B and C.
In HCMC, the epidemiological surveillance results for 810 samples showed that the rate of chronic hepatitis B infection was 9.3 percent, and that of past hepatitis B infection was 54.5 percent. For hepatitis C infection, the rate of people with chronic hepatitis C infection is 0.3 percent, and that of past hepatitis C infection is 1.5 percent. According to statistics from the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in HCMC, an average of 800 patients are examined for liver diseases daily. Of these, hepatitis B accounts for about 60 percent, and hepatitis C accounts for about 14 percent.
Faced with this situation, the People's Committee of HCMC has set a target that by 2025, the city would reduce the rate of hepatitis B infection in children under five years old to less than 0.5 percent, the transmission of hepatitis B virus from mother to child, the transmission of hepatitis B and C viruses in health facilities by 100 percent, and transmission among drug users. At the same time, it is necessary to exclude hepatitis B and C transmission via blood, reduce the transmission of the hepatitis virus through the gastrointestinal tract, and minimize cirrhosis, liver cancer, and mortality from hepatitis B and C infections.
