The Treatment Activists Group (GAT) today argued that primary health care should offer hepatitis tests, as is already the case for sexually transmitted diseases such as chlamydia and gonorrhea.
“Maybe under pressure from the very alarmist news about sexually transmitted infections, and hepatitis B is a sexually transmitted infection, for the first time screening for chlamydia and gonorrhea can be done in primary health care. (…) It’s obvious that the same thing should happen with hepatitis B and hepatitis C,” said Luis Mendão, from GAT.
Stressing the urgency of having these tests in primary health care, he pointed out that Portugal is a country of immigration and that many immigrants come from areas where hepatitis B is endemic and should be closely monitored in primary health care.
“We have to ensure that we screen and diagnose people born outside Portugal who have hepatitis B, that we treat them and that those who are not infected are vaccinated, even as adults,” he said, considering that there is “a huge delay” at this level.
He pointed to the lack of “a consistent policy of screening and vaccinating adults at risk”, stressing that this issue must be “a priority” if the targets set in the area of hepatitis B are to be achieved.
Those responsible for the National Program for Viral Hepatitis, of the Directorate-General for Health, had already drawn attention to this problem, with the report released last year pointing to a slight increase in hospitalizations for chronic hepatitis B, justifying it with the increase in forced migration associated with armed conflicts and insisting on screening.
According to the report, released in July, hospitalizations for chronic hepatitis B will rise from 17 in 2021 to 21 in 2022. The authors warn that this can be explained by the “significant increase” in migration associated with wars in countries where the prevalence of viral hepatitis B and C is very high.
At the time, the director of the National Program for Viral Hepatitis, Rui Tato Marinho, called on general practitioners who follow this population to ask for hepatitis B, C and HIV testing.
Speaking to Lusa today, he once again insisted on the need to include a liver test in routine tests: “Nowadays, almost everyone who goes to the doctor has a test, for one reason or another, so it’s important to include it. To think that there are at least 100,000 Portuguese who may have these three diseases,” he said.
For his part, Luis Mendão highlighted the important role that community-based organizations play with these populations.
“The organizations that work with these populations have a fundamental role to play in building trust and promoting the offer of screening among the leaders of that community,” he said, adding: “the involvement of community-based organizations, framed by universities and public health specialists, is crucial to solving the problem, but they cannot replace the absence of a national policy.”
Hepatitis A outbreak has more than 40 cases, but has stabilized
