Chronic hepatitis B virus infection: epidemiology, prevention, and treatment in China

Abstract

Chronic hepatitis B is a major health problem in China. The universal vaccination program since 1992 has changed the epidemiology of hepatitis B virus infection in China from highly to moderately endemic. The most prevalent hepatitis B virus strains in China are genotypes B and C, whereas those in western provinces are genotypes D and C/D hybrid. Chronic hepatitis B poses a heavy burden to the society in China. Different treatment strategies have been explored to improve patient outcomes in a cost-effective manner. However, antiviral drugs with a low genetic barrier to resistance are still extensively used because of the generally low income and limited resources in China. Individualized antiviral therapy is closely associated with translational medicine, which utilizes information from studies on genomics, immune biomarkers, and fibrosis. The results of these studies are crucial in further improving treatment outcomes.

Keywords

chronic hepatitis B / epidemiology / prevention / treatment

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by National Science and Technology Major Project (2012ZX10002003).

Abbreviations

ADV	Adefovir
ALT	alanine aminotransferase
CHB	chronic hepatitis B
CXCR5	circulating chemokine (C-XC motif) receptor
ETV	Entecavir
GWAS	genome-wide association study
HBeAg	hepatitis B e antigen
HBsAg	hepatitis B surface antigen
HBV	hepatitis B virus
HCC	hepatocellular carcinoma
LAM	lamivudine
LDT	telbivudine
-IFN	pegylated interferons
TDF	tenofovir
TE	transient elastography
NAs	nucleos(t)ide analogs

Compliance with ethics guidelines

Jinlin Hou has received consulting fees from Roche, Novartis, GSK, and Bristol-Myers Squibb and has received grant/research support from Roche, Novartis, and GSK. Rui Yu and Rong Fan declare that they have no conflicts of interest. This manuscript is a review article and does not involve a research protocol requiring approval by the relevant institutional review board or ethics committee.

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg