Abstract

An SGD goal �??Elimination of Hepatitis by 2030�?�: hope and hype regarding prophylactic and therapeutic Vaccine

Author(s): Sheikh Mohammad Fazle Akbar

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) has infected about 2 billion people of the world and about 240 million are regarded as patients of chronic hepatitis B (CHB). CHB is progressive and develops cirrhosis of the liver and hepatocellular carcinoma. Although potent prophylactic vaccines against HBV have been developed and commercialized for more than 4 decades, still several million new infections of HBV occur. Almost all countries have accepted recommendations of WHO for containment of HBV, however, some of the recommendations are scientifically sound but neither patient-friendly nor applicable in many resource-constrained countries. One of such recommendations is birth-dose vaccination and its utility in Asian countries is questionable. Several antiviral drugs have been developed for the treatment of CHB, but these are endowed with infinite usage or life-long usage. These drugs are costly, have limited effectiveness, unable to block complications. In other words, antiviral drugs are unable to stand the test of time as HBV, the virus, is not cytopathic and pathological lesions are immune-mediated. We have developed a novel immune therapeutic agent for CHB after accomplishing Phase I/II/III clinical trials. The delivery in the conference would enroll discussion and data about the limitation of ongoing WHO recommendations about the birth-dose vaccine. It will also shed light on how a functional cure of CHB may be attained by immune therapy.