Hepatitis B News

• Obesity Epidemic Threatens Effectiveness of Any COVID-19 Vaccine In the US, where at least 4.6 million people have been infected and nearly 155,000 have died, the promise of that vaccine is hampered by a vexing epidemic that long preceded COVID-19: obesity.
  Kaiser Health News, August 06, 2020
• Hepatitis Screening Now for All Patients With Cancer on Therapy All patients with cancer who are candidates for systemic therapy should be screened for hepatitis B, says the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
  Medscape Medical News, August 05, 2020
• Parental Refusal of Neonatal Therapy a Growing Problem Parents who refuse one indicated neonatal preventive therapy often refuse others even when the reasons are different, according to an update at the Pediatric Hospital Medicine 2020 Virtual.
  Medscape Medical News, July 30, 2020
• Vaccine Safety Affirmed in Review of FDA Approvals Vaccines are 'remarkably' safe and the US Food and Drug Administration's approval and postmarketing system is 'robust,' a cohort study reveals.
  Reuters Health Information, July 27, 2020
• Liver Cancer Increase Driven Mainly by NASH in Men Over 60 The global increase in liver cancer has been driven mainly by an increase in fatty liver disease in men over 60 in developed countries, suggests a new analysis.
  Medscape Medical News, March 23, 2020
• Liver Cancer Risk Reduced by Aspirin in Chronic Viral Hepatitis The risk of liver cancer was reduced by 31% compared with no aspirin use, and liver-related mortality dropped by 27%, as long as aspirin use continued.
  Medscape Medical News, March 13, 2020
• GUILD 2020HBV: Rethink the Free Pass for Immune-Tolerant Patients There might well be a cure for hepatitis B in coming years, just like there is now for hepatitis C, an expert reports.
  Medscape Medical News, February 27, 2020
• Chinese Doctors Using Plasma Therapy on Coronavirus, WHO Says "Very Valid" Approach Doctors in Shanghai are using hyperimmune globulin derived from plasma of patients who have recovered from the coronavirus to treat those still battling the infection, reporting some encouraging preliminary results, a Chinese professor said on Monday.
  Reuters Health Information, February 17, 2020
• Few Perinatally Exposed Infants Receive Recommended Hep C Testing Fewer than a quarter of infants exposed perinatally to hepatitis C virus (HCV) undergo testing for the virus, according to a database study.
  Reuters Health Information, February 14, 2020
• Spring Bank Stops Hepatitis Drug Development After Patient Dies During Trial
  Reuters Health Information, January 29, 2020
• Lower Hepatoma Risk With Earlier ALT Normalization During HBV Treatment Earlier normalization of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels during treatment of chronic hepatitis B is independently associated with a reduced risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), researchers from South Korea report.
  Reuters Health Information, January 17, 2020
• Infections Account for 13% of All Cancer Cases Infectious pathogens are responsible for about 2 million cases of cancer worldwide, but there is great variation among geographic regions.
  Medscape Medical News, January 21, 2020
• Hepatitis D Virus Coinfection Boosts HBV Healthcare Costs Hepatitis delta virus (HDV) infection, which occurs only as a co-infection with acute hepatitis B (HBV) or a superinfection with chronic HBV, is associated with higher healthcare utilization and costs than HBV alone, a matched case-control analysis reveals.
  Reuters Health Information, December 18, 2019
• Maternal Efavirenz Use Linked to Microcephaly in Children Maternal use of the antiretroviral efavirenz is associated with an increased risk of microcephaly in children who are HIV-exposed but uninfected, according to findings from the SMARTT study.
  Reuters Health Information, December 03, 2019
• Pregnant Women May Not Have Safety Risks With Common Travel Vaccines Many common travel vaccines don't have known safety risks for pregnant women, although a research review also suggests that evidence is limited for some inoculations.
  Reuters Health Information, November 22, 2019
• Poor Adherence to Immunization, Screening Guidelines for Pediatric IBD Contrary to current guidelines, children with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) often don't receive required vaccines and are not properly screened before initiation of biologics, a multicenter study from Europe reveals.
  Reuters Health Information, November 20, 2019
• AASLD 2019CRISPR Used to Silence Crucial Hepatitis B Gene A new CRISPR technology used to target a gene might be an effective way to eradicate chronic hepatitis B infection, investigators report.
  Medscape Medical News, November 12, 2019
• Revaccination Can Increase Response Rates, Hepatitis B Protection Revaccinating healthy non-responders with Fendrix or HBVaxPro-40 resulted in significantly more responders to hepatitis B vaccination, a randomized controlled superiority trial showed.
  Reuters Health Information, October 30, 2019
• Number of Hep B Booster Doses Needed to Restore Seropositivity Depends on Antibody Titers For young adults previously vaccinated against hepatitis B but found to be seronegative for hepatitis B antibodies, the number of booster doses of hepatitis B vaccine needed to restore seropositivity depends on antibody titers, researchers in Taiwan report.
  Reuters Health Information, September 30, 2019
• Alert FDA OKs First Treatment for Rare Types of Vasculitis in Kids The FDA has approved rituximab injection for granulomatosis with polyangiitis and microscopic polyangiitis in children aged 2 years or older.
  FDA Approvals, September 30, 2019