- More than 25,000 people die annually from liver disease in Poland. The consequences of untreated liver disease are cirrhosis and cancer of this organ. More than 90 per cent of patients in Poland diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma do not survive for 12 months, says Professor Jerzy Jaroszewicz, Head of the Department of Infectious Diseases and Hepatology of the Faculty of Medical Sciences in Zabrze, President of the Polish Hepatological Society.
On 24 July 2024, a conference and expert debate was held at the Polish Sejm as part of the World Viral Hepatitis Day celebrations under the honorary patronage of the Speaker of the Sejm, Szymon Holownia. The assembled clinical experts, MPs, government and local government representatives discussed strategies to improve detection of HBV and HCV infections and awareness of viral hepatitis.
In addition to clinical experts, such as the aforementioned Professor Jerzy Jaroszewicz, Professor Krzysztof Tomasiewicz (UML, chairman of the Polish HCV Expert Group), Professor Olga Tronina (WUM) and Professor Jolanta Walusiak-Skorupa (Director of the Institute of Occupational Medicine), the meeting was attended by the Deputy Minister of Health, Urszula Demkow, numerous MPs and members of the Polish Parliament. The event was organised by the 'Star of Hope' Foundation in cooperation with the CEESTAHC Association.
- There are diseases, liver diseases, which require long and difficult treatment, and there are also diseases, such as HCV infection, which can be cured within 2-3 months using oral medication. Unfortunately, there are still more than 100,000 HCV-infected people who are unaware of their infection, living on the proverbial ticking time bomb. Many of them, unaware of their infection, will develop liver cancer. Still, both access and numbers tested for HCV and awareness of viral hepatitis remain inadequate. We need to act on many fronts, of which the conference and debate at the Polish Sejm was an excellent example, adds Prof Jaroszewicz.
