UK's NICE issues draft guideline for diagnosis and management of hepatitis B

UK drugs watchdog the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is currently developing a new clinical guideline on the diagnosis and management of chronic hepatitis B in children, young people and adults. Draft recommendations have been published on the NICE website today (17 January) for public consultation.

The incidence of chronic hepatitis B has risen sharply, from 435 new cases in 1990 to 1151 in 2003. However, because in the first years after infection there are often few or no symptoms, and because the diagnosis of hepatitis B is often the result of active screening, the true incidence of the disease is difficult to establish and is likely to have been underestimated. It is thought that approximately 180,000 people in the UK have the condition although this figure may be closer to 360,000 when the estimated 6500-plus people with chronic hepatitis B who migrate to the UK each year are taken into account.

The prevalence of hepatitis B is considerably higher among high-risk groups such as first generation migrants from areas where hepatitis B is endemic; people who have multiple sexual partners; and injecting drug users. A recent report from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) has found that one in six people who inject drugs were found to have been infected with the hepatitis B virus at some point in their lives.