WHO Tweeted That The Analysis of Data Helps Improve The Response & Further Develop Guidance by Providing Key Clues Into Hepatitis Disease
By Nmami Agarwal 30-Jun 2022 Reading Time: 3 Mins
Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver caused by various infectious viruses and noninfectious agents leading to a range of health problems, some of which can be fatal. There are five main strains of the hepatitis virus, referred to as types A, B, C, D, and E. While they all cause liver disease, they differ in important ways including modes of transmission, the severity of the illness, and geographical distribution, and prevention methods. In particular, types B and C lead to chronic disease in hundreds of millions of people and are the most common cause of liver cirrhosis, liver cancer, and viral hepatitis-related deaths. An estimated 354 million people worldwide live with hepatitis B or C; for most, testing and treatment remain beyond reach.
Some types of hepatitis are preventable through vaccination. A WHO study found that an estimated 4.5 million premature deaths could be prevented in low- and middle-income countries by 2030 through vaccination, diagnostic tests, medicines, and education campaigns.
The analysis of data helps improve the response & further develop guidance by providing key clues into the disease:
- cause
- clinical characterization
- natural history
- severity
The World Health Organisation Has Developed a Case Report Form To Make Data Gathering Easier:
Multiple countries are reporting severe acute cases of hepatitis of unknown etiology in children, in several regions of the world. WHO has developed this clinical case report form (CRF) to support and facilitate reporting of anonymized, patient-level data of acute hepatitis of unknown etiology. It is a secure, limited-access, password-protected platform hosted on REDCap.
This form is intended to support standardized data collection in support of the following objectives:
- To understand the clinical characterization of disease, its natural history, and its severity.
- To understand risk factors for severe disease, including which children may be at the highest risk of the disease and severe outcomes.
- To generate hypotheses about disease etiology.
- To better characterize the scale of this public health threat to guide the public health response and the development of clinical management guidance including approaches to investigations and infection prevention and control interventions.
Over To You:
WHO invites the Member States, health facilities, and other entities to participate in the global effort to collect anonymized clinical data relating to suspected or confirmed cases of severe acute hepatitis of unknown etiology and contribute data to the WHO Global Clinical Platform.