WHO Collaborating Centre,
Kanazawa University

Kanazawa University (KU) designated as a WHO collaborating centre in 2017 for Chronic Hepatitis and Liver Cancer.

Worldwide, approximately 325 million people have viral hepatitis, responsible for 1.34 million deaths in 2015. One quarter of the world's population lives in the Western Pacific, but the region bears 40% of the world's deaths caused by hepatitis. Hepatitis kills more than 1500 people every day in the region, and is a serious international health issue.

Despite the significant burden it places on communities across all global regions, hepatitis has been largely ignored as a health and development priority until recently. WHO advocated targets that seek to reduce incidences of chronic hepatitis infection from the current 6-10 million cases of chronic infection to 0.9 million infections by 2030. WHO also seeks to reduce annual deaths from chronic hepatitis from 1.4 million to less than 0.5 million by 2030. To successfully eliminate viral hepatitis, education and knowledge about hepatitis prevention and treatment is vital.

KU dispatched four hepatitis experts to the WHO headquarters Geneva, Switzerland from 2013 and have been engaged in assisting in the development of WHO hepatitis guidelines.

In 2016, we sent clinical staff to the WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific and will assist there subject to continued availability of funding. Their task there is to support the WHO roll-out and dissemination of WHO guidelines on testing, hepatitis B and C treatment and clinical management of liver cirrhosis and cancer.

We will strengthen our efforts at developing global human resources through intern-training and individual exchange. We hope to continue working with WHO and WPRO for improved international health practices and the elimination of hepatitis.

Prof. Shuichi Kaneko, Director