- - - TIME BOUND GOAL FOR HEP B CONTROL IN WESTERN PACIFIC REGION

Sunday, 21st of April 2013

TIME BOUND GOAL FOR HEP B CONTROL IN WESTERN PACIFIC REGION

Writing in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization, Rani and colleagues make the case for time bound goals for hep B control. Of the six WHO regions, Western Pacific is the first to have set such a goal.

From the authors' discussion:

'To date, most supranational time-bound disease-specific goals have focused on eradicable diseases and were driven by the cost savings that could be achieved after eradication. The example of the regional hepatitis B control goal in the WPR shows that setting a supranational time-bound disease control goal can help generate a sense of political urgency and accelerate efforts to control diseases that pose important public health problems but are not necessarily eradicable. Whereas for disease eradication, the target date relates to the time needed to implement a large-scale intervention involving immunization or drug treatment to wipe out a pathogen, the target date for disease control relates to the time needed to bring the programme performance up to a desirable level.

'If a supranational goal is to achieve its intended impact, it should be based on technical evidence and have clearly defined programme strategies, process indicators and a measurable outcome goal, and there should be a definite time-line for achieving the goal. Equal emphasis needs to be placed on the final outcome and the process used to achieve it. The proposal that achievement of the hepatitis B control goal should be independently certified using well-defined criteria is innovative, and has previously been applied only to disease-eradication goals. The independent certification process will involve few additional costs and regular reporting of results will maintain both a sense of urgency and pressure to improve performance.'

It should be noted that WPR is much farther along with polio, measles and tetanus than most of the other regions. Not all regions are in a strong position to move quickly towards hep B control goals.

Full text athttp://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/87/9/08-059220/en/