A joint study by Shanghai's Fudan University and the World Health Organization found that the strategy of universal vaccination of neonatal hepatitis B vaccine has effectively reduced the rate of chronic hepatitis B virus infection in children in China.

The study, which examined the prevalence of the infection in the country between 1973 and 2021, involved analyzing more than 3,700 research reports and the chronic hepatitis B infection status of 230 million people in 31 provincial-level regions on the Chinese mainland as well as Hong Kong and Taiwan.

A paper about the study led by Chen Xingdong from the Human Phenome Institute of Fudan University was published on the website of the journal Gut on Oct 5.

Chronic HBV infection is the most common cause of liver cancer and one of the major public health problems in China. The country had in 1992 initiated a hepatitis B vaccination policy for newborns before gradually expanding the vaccination coverage to 100 percent. The country has also implemented other policies to curb the spread of HBV.

The study showed that such policies have greatly reduced the rate of HBV infection in the country's population, especially among children and adolescents. The decline in children under 5 was the most pronounced. The infection rate of this group was about 0.3 percent in 2021.

The WHO had previously announced an initiative to eliminate hepatitis by 2030 as well as achieve a 90 percent reduction in HBV infection and 65 percent reduction in associated mortality by that year compared with 2015.