FValse - Franco Vietnamese Association for Liver Studies and Education
Viral Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C
Viral hepatitis and liver diseases are among the most important causes
of morbidity and early mortality in Vietnam. While the global prevalence
of viral hepatitis C is 3%, it is estimated that in Vietnam up to 15% of
the population may be contaminated. In the Western world the spread of hepatitis
B has been overall controlled, while in Vietnam it remains the leading cause
of cirrhosis and liver cancer. The main reasons for this dramatic public
health issue are the prolonged unsafe healthcare-related practices such
as reusable glass syringes and shared injectables, and uncontrolled blood
transfusions that have resulted from 40 years of war and economic embargo.
After a long period of disappointing therapies for viral hepatitis, major
breakthroughs in the last few years have radically modified the approach
to treatment. Drug agents such as interferons and antivirals are now available
to treat and in many cases cure these chronic diseases that otherwise evolve
into liver cirrhosis and death. Understanding how and when these extremely
expensive therapeutics should be prescribed is a major challenge that will
require expert advice and formal training and education of doctors and medical
personnel involved in the care of such patients, particularly in a setting
where there are no health insurance programs as is the case in Vietnam for
the foreseeable future.
We have constituted a large group of expert hepatologists from France and
Switzerland who are affiliated with the Franco-Vietnamese Hospital located
in Ho Chi Minh City. The FV Hospital is an international standard general
hospital which has opened in 2003 in HCM City, staffed with French and Vietnamese
doctors. Our group is made of reputed clinicians and teachers in the field
of liver diseases with a specific sensitivity for medical issues in developing
countries.
Our intention is to establish at FV Hospital a Liver Disease Teaching Center
to provide up to date medical training in prevention and screening of hepatitis
B and hepatitis C and to foster guidelines for management. When dealing
with chronic diseases that require long term follow-up it is essential to
provide patient education with information material written in Vietnamese.
For this ambitious educational program to succeed we can count on the professional
expertise of a group of committed hepatologists as well as the appropriate
facilities of a modern hospital in HCM City catering for a population of
several million people in the south of Vietnam. Our purpose is to develop
the educational tools.
Edited by Aldo Campana,