Hepatitis remains big problem in Indonesia: minister

Hepatitis remains a big problem in Indonesia as many as 30 million people are infected by the disease, the Jakarta Post quoted a minister as saying on Thursday.

"Even though we have carried out many programs, hepatitis remains a big problem," Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih said at a ceremony in Yogyakarta province.

Meanwhile, Ali Sulaiman from the University of Indonesia's Hepatology Division said that the number of people with the hepatitis B and C virus in Indonesia may be more than 20 million.

"The hepatitis virus in general and hepatitis B and C virus specifically have been a major health problem in Indonesia for a long time," Ali said.

Ali also said that at least 2 billion people globally have now or had once been infected by the hepatitis virus. More than 400 million people are currently infected and 170 million people have hepatitis C, he added.

In May, the World Health Assembly (WHA) adopted a resolution on viral hepatitis to be included in the World Health Organization's (WHO) priority agenda. Indonesia was one of the parties that pushed for the resolution, along with Brazil.

Source: Xinhua