Cuba says hepatitis B eliminated among minors under 15

Cuba has eliminated viral hepatitis B among the population aged under 15 thanks to a locally developed vaccine in the Caribbean country’s massive immunization campaign, state media reported Saturday. The vaccine, Heberbiovac HB, was produced by the Center of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in Havana, and the country has not reported any cases of the disease among people aged under 15 for the last 23 years, Maria Fonte Reyes, an expert in hygiene and epidemiology at the Health Ministry, told official daily Granma. Since 1992, every Cuban newborn is immunized against the hepatitis B virus with the vaccine, Reyes said, adding that students, health staff and dialysis patients deemed vulnerable to the virus were also vaccinated. Currently, all Cubans under 31 are immunized against infections, the expert said, noting that compared with 1989 the number of hepatitis B cases in the country had dropped by 99.09 percent to only 21 cases by the...