Tuesday, 09 March 2010
A SHORTFALL of funding for hepatitis sufferers has been revealed at an international conference in Whakatane.
Hepatitis Foundation of New Zealand chief executive John Hornell said hepatitis B was a great killer in New Zealand, with only five per cent of the people who qualified for treatment getting it.
“Hepatitis B has come of age and it’s now as serious as hepatitis C and HIV - between 150 and 200 people die from it each year - and it’s the biggest cause of liver cancer in the country.”
“The funding must go up,” Mr Hornell said.
New Zealand has an estimated 100,000 hepatitis B carriers, and another 50,000 people were estimated to carry hepatitis C.
“Too many people are still dying prematurely.”
Mr Hornell said the third New Zealand Viral Hepatitis conference 2010 - held from Thursday to Saturday at the Whakatane War Memorial Centre and attended by about 140 people - was the leading conference of its kind in Australasia.
“We have world leaders in the field speaking,” he said.
The conference was opened by associate health minister Tariana Turia, who in her speech acknowledged the work of then-lab technician Alexander (Sandy) Milne and paediatrician Chris Moyes, who in 1972 revealed there were unusually high rates of hepatitis B among Eastern Bay residents.
The Whakatane-based Hepatitis Foundation is a charitable trust that has its origins in the work done by Mr Milne.
Over the years the foundation has undertaken major screening, vaccination and research programmes in New Zealand, the Pacific Islands and Vietnam.
The foundation has also been carrying out follow-up of hepatitis B (HBV) carriers in New Zealand since 1994.
In June 1999 it was contracted to deliver part of the national hepatitis B screening programme, targeted to the high-risk population groups including Maori, Pacific Island and Asian adults in the North Island.
The foundation is now contracted to the Ministry of Health as the national provider for long-term follow-up, with approximately 12,000 confirmed HBV carriers registered.
Regular blood testing enables the early detection of complications such as liver inflammation and cancer.
In recent years, increasing numbers of hepatitis C carriers have also registered with the foundation for follow-up and information.
The success story of the Hepatitis Foundation of New Zealand is the number of lives saved thanks to the foundation’s work over the last two decades.
This has included the introduction of neonatal hepatitis B vaccination, the first country in the world to introduce this thanks to the work of Mr Milne and Dr Chris Moyes.
The foundation provides services, advice and education, as well as conducting research into hepatitis for the public and health providers.