An estimated 16.7 percent or one out of six Filipinos are living with hepatitis B.

During a Department of Health furom on Wednesday, 24 January, Dr. Angelo Lozada, Vice President of the Hepatology Society of the Philippines, said there are 325 million people worldwide living with chronic hepatitis infection.

“Yung mga deaths na nakikita natin (The deaths that we see) due to viral hepatitis, close to a hundred million at marami dito (and a lot of these are) due to hepatitis B compared to hepatitis C,” Lozada said.

“And these are mostly related deaths due to liver cirrhosis which is a complication of viral Hepatitis or yung dreaded complication din ng liver cirrhosis which is hepatocellular carcinoma or liver cancer,” he added.

In the Philippines, he noted, there are about 11,569 deaths daily from complications related to Hepatitis B.

Lozada said hepatitis B is a huge public health concern in the Philippines.

“Philippines, we live in the area of the world where in [mayroong] (there is) high prevalence... Endemic na siya (it is endemic). Very high ang prevalence and we belong to this particular category,” he added.

“We can see that there’s an estimated projection of in case of decompensated liver cirrhosis, which is the complication of hepatitis B and also the incidence of liver cancer, so the 10-year projection is estimated to increase by 30 percent if we do not make an action,” he continued.

Meanwhile, Lozada said liver cancer is the sixth most common diagnosed cancer in the world.

It accounts for 9.9 million deaths worldwide and is the third world most common cause of death from cancer worldwide, next to lung cancer and colorectal cancer.

In the Philippines, it is the fourth most common cancer and second most common cause of cancer-related deaths.

“Mataas talaga ang mortality (mortality is really high) from liver cancer compared to other cancers because of the complexity as well as yung (the) cost for treating,” Dr. Angelo Lozada, Vice President of the Hepatology Society of the Philippines, said.

The annual costs for a patient with liver cancer are estimated at P48,367 for public inpatient and P52,749 for private inpatient.