T

he World Health Organization has called on nations to make combating viral hepatitis a priority as the disease kills more people than any other communicable disease in Southeast Asia.

The call was made on Thursday to commemorate the first official World Hepatitis Day, which starting this year will be observed every July 28.

“Viral hepatitis is a silent killer in Southeast Asia. An infected person may show no symptoms and appear healthy for years before succumbing to complications of the disease,” Samlee Plianbangchang, WHO’s regional director for Southeast Asia, said in a press release made available on Wednesday.

The Health Ministry estimates that 30 million Indonesians are hepatitis B and C positive, the third highest population of hepatitis victims in the world after India and China. Globally, 350 million people are chronically infected with hepatitis B and 170 million with hepatitis C.

However, expanding access to costly hepatitis prevention measures and treatments, including free drugs for poor people, routine immunizations and screenings, remains problematic due to resource shortages.

“Few people are aware of the need to give wider access to hepatitis medical treatments, especially for people co-infected with HIV and hepatitis C viral,” Heru Widarsah, an activist from the Network of Indonesian People with HIV (JOTHI), said in a public discussion on Wednesday.

About 85 percent of people with hepatitis C will develop chronic liver disease if they are infected with HIV.

Tjandra Yoga Aditama, the Health Ministry’s disease control and environmental health chief, said: “We have initiated various programs on hepatitis, starting from a writing guidance book on management of hepatitis.”

The WHO says countries should increase infant immunization is for hepatitis B to reach 95 percent coverage and make testing and screening of all blood and blood products for hepatitis B and C mandatory.

“On World Hepatitis Day, WHO is also recommending that hepatitis be made a notifiable disease,” Plianbangchang said.