TY - JOUR T1 - A Convenient Truth: Cost of Medications Need Not Be a Barrier to Hepatitis B Treatment JF - Global Health: Science and Practice JO - GLOB HEALTH SCI PRACT SP - 186 LP - 190 DO - 10.9745/GHSP-D-16-00128 VL - 4 IS - 2 AU - Matthew Barnhart Y1 - 2016/06/20 UR - http://www.ghspjournal.org/content/4/2/186.abstract N2 - Drugs that are inexpensive to manufacture and simple to administer greatly expand the potential to help tens of millions of people who need treatment for chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Key program implementation challenges include identifying who would benefit from antiviral medication and ensuring long-term and consistent treatment to people who feel well. The best opportunities are where health systems are advanced enough to effectively address these challenges and in settings where HIV service platforms can be leveraged. Research, innovation, and collaboration are critical to implement services most efficiently and to realize economies of scale to drive down costs of health care services, drugs, and diagnostics.Viral hepatitis, principally due to chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) and chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV), claimed 1.4 million lives worldwide in 2013,1 a rising toll that is now actually greater than that of mortality from HIV. Of the annual deaths caused by viral hepatitis, almost half (686,000) are attributable to HBV.1The toll of viral hepatitis is now greater than that of mortality from HIV.Although HBV vaccination rates for the childhood routine hepatitis B vaccine series were 82% globally in 2014,2 coverage rates for the hepatitis B birth dose—to optimally prevent mother-to-child (perinatal) transmission—lag behind. Furthermore, global disability-adjusted life years lost due to HBV-associated liver cancer have continued to rise by 4.8% since 2005.3 This is because the vast majority of complications from HBV occur among individuals older than 40 who were infected in the perinatal period or as young children. Indeed, an estimated 240 million individuals are already chronically infected,4 of whom 20% to 30% will eventually develop cirrhosis and/or liver cancer in the absence of treatment.5Although chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection is usually not curable, thankfully certain antiviral drugs are highly effective … ER -