Abstract
Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is an enormous economic and social burden. Asian countries such as Vietnam, Mongolia, Laos, China, the Philippines, South Korea, Singapore and Cambodia have high or high‐intermediate HBsAg prevalence. Most of the chronic HBV carriers in this region acquire their infection during early childhood or through mother‐to‐child transmission (MTCT). Asia has been highly successful in controlling HBV in the last 2 decades. For example, China has adopted a comprehensive strategy to control HBV and has offered universal HBV vaccination to infants since 1992. With increasing coverage and a timely birth dose of the HBV vaccine, the prevalence of HBsAg in that general population decreased from 9.75% in 1992 to 7.18% in 2006. The prevalence of HBsAg in the population
KEYWORDS
Asia, China, control, hepatitis B virus, prevention, vaccine
