Chinese health experts are calling for prompt action to prevent spread of infectious hepatitis C, which has similar transmission channels as HIV/AIDS yet is less understood in China when compared to other communicable illnesses such as hepatitis A and B.

The Chinese Medical Society, with help of Swiss-based Roche Pharmaceutical Ltd, is working on a national plan for hepatitis C prevention and control in China. The plan, due out at the end of the year, will pass fundamental information along to the general public and standardize practices in Chinese medical facilities.

According to Si Chongwen, an expert with the infectious diseases department of Beijing No.1 Hospital affiliated to Beijing Medical University, hepatitis C can be transmitted through blood transfusion, mother-to-baby, intravenous drug use and sexual contact.

The expert quoted information from the National Center for Diseases Control that more than 60 percent of HIV/AIDS patients in China are carrying hepatitis C virus.

According to a report from the World Health Organization, since hepatitis C was first discovered in 1989, some 170 million people worldwide, or 3.1 percent of the world's total population have been infected. In China, the figure stands at 37 million.

The bad part of the disease is that, unlike hepatitis A and B, which have obvious symptoms such as high fever in their initial stages, people with hepatitis C usually only feel tired and have yellow faces or jaundice, therefore many patients ignore it.

(China Daily October 13, 2003)