Hepatitis B, Complete Clearance Is Rare In Asians
According to World Health Organization, estimated 240 million people are infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV). Though vaccination and treatment of HBV is common these days, complete clearance seems still seems to be a big hurdle. The scientists from the USA claim that complete clearance of HBV is rare in women, children and especially people with Asian ethnicity. Recent World Health Organization data estimates that over 240 million people are affected with hepatitis B virus (HBV). HBV infection is a big health concern around the world and infections still occur in developed countries. Due to comprehensive vaccination drives the number of people affected with HBV has dropped in last few decades. However, the complete clearance is still not possible in patients who are affected with HBV. This conclusion was made by the group of scientists from USA in a retrospective study. The scientists published the conclusion in an international journal “Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics” this month. The scientists retrospectively enrolled 4737 patients from 5 different sites across USA. The scientists obtained the data from manual review of these patients’ records. In order to consider patient cleared from hepatitis B, scientists considered seroclearance as loss of HBsAg seropositivity. As HBsAg positivity is associated with increased risk of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma, patients who did not lose HBsAg were still considered to be clinically infected with HBV. The scientists found that HBsAg seroclearance occurred in 52 patients over 16 844 person-years (0.31% annually, 1.2% overall). They also found that the incidence of HBsAg seroclearance was higher in non-Asians and patients with the age more than 45 years who were males, and those with baseline HBV DNA ≤10 000 IU/mL. The result of the study suggest that men were twice as likely as women to clear the virus completely. People of Asian descent were less likely than other racial or ethnic groups to clear the virus. People over the age of 45 were almost twice as likely to get rid of the virus as younger patients. The scientists also claimed that this is the further proof that regarding current standard therapies - for which viral suppression rather than elimination are the goal - may not suffice and that more research should be dedicated to therapeutics that help achieve viral cure. The results of this study are indicative about the genetic specificity of HBV virus. This publication synopsis is based on the study published in Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics in July, 2016 from the original source Nguyen, L. H., Hoang, J., Nguyen, N. H., Vu, V. D., Wang, C., Trinh, H. N., ... & Nguyen, M. H. (2016). Ethnic differences in incidence of hepatitis B surface antigen seroclearance in a real-life multicenter clinical cohort of 4737 patients with chronic hepatitis B infection. Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics.
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