China's progress in treating hepatitis has been chosen as one of
the top 10 China medical technology news items of last year in a
list released by the Ministry of Health and the State Drug
Administration.
Chinese scientists developed a biochip to quickly detect the virus
that causes hepatitis C.
The liver illness has infected about 40 million Chinese, mainly
through contaminated blood.
The silica-origin protein chip detects the hepatitis C virus in
blood samples more efficiently and accurately than the current
method of ELISA (enzyme-linked immunoadsorbent assay), according to
the People's Daily website, which quoted Wang Shengqi as
saying.
Wang led a team of researchers from the Chinese Academy of Military
Medicine.
On
October 16, the State Drug Administration gave the detection kit
for hepatitis C antibodies approval to enter the market.
Insiders at a Beijing-based national biochip engineering centre,
said the significance of the product goes far beyond just
controlling hepatitis C, since the country is determined to give
the whole biochip industry a boost.
About 40 million people in China, or around 3.2 per cent of its
population, have hepatitis C, reported the Shenzhen-based
Yishengtang Biological Products Co Ltd, the company that developed
the biochip.
China has also reported a high rate of hepatitis B. Around 10 per
cent of its nearly 1.3 billion people are infected by the virus.
About 25 per cent of those infected are likely to develop chronic
hepatitis B.
(China Daily January 3, 2003)