Taipei: Taiwan plans to expand the eligibility of its existing free hepatitis B and C screening program to cover people aged 40-79, a health official said on Saturday. The plan is set to roll out this new measure starting in July, as announced by Health Promotion Administration (HPA) Director-General Wu Chao-chun during a telephone briefing with reporters.
According to Focus Taiwan, the current HPA policy offers one free lifetime hepatitis B and C screening to individuals aged 45-79 who are covered under the National Health Insurance program, with Indigenous Taiwanese already eligible from ages 40-79. The government aims to eliminate hepatitis C by the end of 2025, which is five years earlier than the World Health Organization's (WHO) target of eradicating the disease by 2030. Wu highlighted Taiwan's significant progress toward the WHO's impact targets for hepatitis C elimination, though he noted more work is needed on hepatitis B prevention.
Since 1986, Taiwan has operated a universal hepatitis B vaccination program, inoculating every newborn against the virus. People born before 1986 are considered high-risk, making early identification of individuals with liver disease crucial, Wu stated. By lowering the eligibility age to 40, the HPA expects more than a million additional people to benefit from the free hepatitis screening program.
In Taiwan, liver disease is commonly referred to as a "national ailment," with hepatitis C playing a major role in the progression of liver disease and causing extrahepatic complications.