Highlights of Past Meetings

APASL STC 2014 on HBV in Guangzhou

Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver– Guangzhou Announcement: “Hand in hand with one heart, confront and fight back Hepatitis B”
December 15, 2014

From December 12th to 14th, a number of experts of Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver (APASL) gathered at the APASL Single Topic Conference, the 4th HBV Conference in Guangzhou China, focusing on resolving the issue of Chronic Hepatitis B, a global public health burden that has long plagued the life of a huge population of people. Till now, both clinical studies and practical-evidences have convincingly demonstrated that Hepatitis B is preventable, controllable and treatable. In order for effective implementation of the appropriate management of Hepatitis B to help more patients get out of their suffering, the experts initiated and put forward a Guangzhou Announcement, “Hand in hand with one heart, confront and fight back Hepatitis B “.
In the Guangzhou Announcement, the first special appeal is to the government: they hope the Asian Pacific governments care more for patients with Hepatitis B, executing their duty committed for the public health service to reduce the long-term burden of medical expenses for Chronic Hepatitis B. Governments are expected to increase their investment in medical care of Chronic Hepatitis B through macroeconomic policy-making, so that the benefiting policy can comfort and appease the common population to prevent them from illness-caused broken life.
The second special appeal is to the mass media: they hope all the society provide more care for Hepatitis B patients in a practical action, i.e., no discrimination, no rejection, and no abandon, to build a harmonious society family. Thus mass media shall be positive and only public and popularize the correct knowledge of Hepatitis B, so that more of the general people can be aware of Hepatitis B, and are willing to get access to the early detection of Hepatitis B. They sincerely hope the public media will immediately put an end to the immoral commercials, including advertisings of fake drug and fraudulent treatment. Only relaying on the positive and scientific guidance, can it be possible for the majority of patients to correct their understanding of the disease and accept the appropriate professional treatment.
The third special appeal is to the Hepatitis B patients: they hope the patients will be able to take the initiative to get out of self-restraint and back to the normal life. Patients are also expected to completely remove their fear of Hepatitis B disease, improve self-esteem, be positive and keep balanced in physical and mental health; meanwhile only accept professional and systematic treatment of Hepatitis B, stay away from false advertising, and be thoughtful enough to recognize the real authenticity.
The fourth special appeal is to all levels of health-care delivery constitutions: they hope the health-care delivery constitutions keep improving professional standards, including, to provide more systematic service for Hepatitis B patients and treat the disease with special cures, to follow the current evidence-based medical practice guideline, to implement publicity of all aspects of Hepatitis B knowledge, and to perform medical research survey for providing reliable data to support national prevention of chronic hepatitis as well.
The last but not least special appeal is to the industries of pharmaceutics and medical insurance: through consultation with the health administrative departments at all levels, they are expected to help to include the first-line anti-HBV drugs into the national basic medical insurance catalog or the items on medical insurance list, and to pursue a significant reduction in anti-HBV drug prices allowing the high-efficacy drugs to benefit more patients. This is the livelihood issue that both government and the general people most concern about, because it can substantially encourage more patients to faithfully adhere to long-term treatment to prevent disease progression, which will result in a significant reduction in morbidity and mortality of liver cancer.