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Liver cancer from hepatitis looms large in RI
Indonesians are becoming increasingly more vulnerable to cancer of the liver, with more than 40,000 new cases detected each year, health experts warn
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Indonesians are becoming increasingly more vulnerable to cancer of the liver, with more than 40,000 new cases detected each year, health experts warn.
“Around 42,600 new cases of liver cancer occur every year in the country,” health expert Terawan Agus Putranto said Saturday during a seminar on cancer diagnosis and therapy in Jakarta.
“Most of the cases stem from hepatitis, which is a prevalent disease among Indonesians,” added the radiology specialist from Gading Pluit Hospital in North Jakarta.
He said careless use of needles and unmonitored blood transfusions had contributed significantly to the spread of hepatitis, which is transferable through blood, feces and sexual contact.
Hans U. Baer, an expert on cancer-related abdominal surgery, told the forum that hepatitis was a disconcerting issue in Indonesia, with around 10 percent of the country’s 240 million people exposed to the Hepatitis A virus, 5 percent to the Hepatitis B virus, and another 5 percent Hepatitis C.
In a speech two years ago, Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said around 3 percent of the global population was infected with Hepatitis C, and that the number of cases would increase by 3 to 4 million each year, making the disease one of the top 10 deadly diseases.
Baer said around 30 percent of those infected by the viruses were likely to develop cirrhosis, or hardening of the liver, which could eventually develop into liver cancer.
“However, people are often late in realizing they have serious liver conditions, because the liver rarely gives out clear symptoms,” Baer said. “Often, one only experiences fatigue or itching.”
He explained that regular ultrasound examinations were the only reliable way to monitor one’s liver conditions.
Difficult economic conditions have also prevented most Indonesians from monitoring and treating their liver conditions, Baer warned.
“Hepatitis injections are also rather costly to get in Indonesia.”
Currently, a Hepatitis A immunization injection, usually given to a child above the age of 2 and teenagers below the age of 18, costs around Rp 300,000 (US$28).
“Indonesians suffering from liver diseases will find it hard to find sophisticated treatment, such as a liver transplant, in the country,” Gading Pluit Hospital director Barlian Sutedja said at the same event.
Indonesians must also be on the lookout for pancreatic cancer, a deadly disease that can kill a patient in less than a year, Baer said. (dis)
