Verification of Hepatitis B Control
Overview
Thanks to the highly effective hepatitis B vaccine, hepatitis B virus infections among children have been reduced substantially in countries that provide the vaccine for all newborns. National serosurveys are conducted to help countries to assess the impact of hepatitis B immunization and to help the immunization programmes to improve further. Countries in the WHO South-East Asia Region have set the target to reduce the prevalence of chronic hepatitis B to less than 1% among children by 2020. Independent experts convened by WHO will verify country's achievements based on low prevalence shown in serosurveys and sustained high immunization coverage. These achievements will be recognized internationally. The WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia is supporting countries to conduct serosurveys.
The South-East Asia Regional Expert Panel for Verification of Hepatitis B Control (SEA REP) has been established in 2019 to verify countries achieving the Regional goal for control of hepatitis B through immunization, established by the South-East Asia Regional Immunization Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) in its meeting in 2016. The ITAG set a target of ≤ 1% Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) seroprevalence among children aged 5 years, by 2020; in alignment with the Global Health Sector Strategy on Viral Hepatitis. Experts in the panel are health specialists from Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Indonesia, Nepal, Thailand, an academic institution in Australia and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
During its first consultation held 28-29 May 2019 in New Delhi, India, the SEA REP finalized the ‘Guidelines for verification of achievement of hepatitis B control target through immunization in the WHO South-East Asia Region’ and prepared a workplan and timeline for verification. The main evidence needed for verification include the prevalence of chronic hepatitis B among vaccinated cohorts and sustained high immunization coverage. If other sources of data are available they may be included as supplemental information to help the SEA REP decisions.
Following its second consultation the SEA REP verified in July 2019 that Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Thailand have achieved the 2020 target of ≤1% HBsAg seroprevalence among children aged 5 years. Strong routine immunization systems and dedicated health workers use hepatitis B vaccination as a powerful tool very early in life to prevent chronic hepatitis B infection which may later develop into life threatening complications like liver cirrhosis or cancer.
