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Brazil joins international research effort to cure hepatitis B

In the search for new treatments and even a cure for hepatitis B, two Brazilian public universities have joined forces with international institutions. The consortium is led by the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the United States and comprises researchers from Brazil, India, Senegal, and Uganda. Brazil is represented by the Cassiano Antônio Moraes University Hospital of the Federal University of Espírito Santo (Hucam-Ufes) and the University of São Paulo (USP). Notícias relacionadas:WHO director-general: Brazil is a global model for health care.HIV infections, deaths decline, funding gaps threaten progress.The global study will examine, at the cellular level, both the behavior of the virus in patients from different countries and the immune responses of infected individuals. People co-infected with hepatitis B and HIV will also be included in the analysis. “There is no cure for hepatitis B. That is the major global goal,” says Tânia Reuter, a professor at Hucam-Ufes and a leading expert on the subject. “The primary goal is to eliminate viral hepatites - in our case, to eliminate hepatitis B as a public health problem by 2030,” she emphasizes. Tânia Reuter, a professor at Hucam-Ufes and a leading expert on the subject - Hucam/Ufes Research Reuter explains that the researchers will monitor 600 patients with hepatitis B, including those co-infected with HIV, for about four and a half years. There will be 150 patients from each country, 75 of whom will be analyzed by her team. The study aims to identify why the disease progresses differently in each patient, which genetic characteristics may protect people from faster progression, and which viral subparticles may serve as predictors of a cure or treatment response. “I want to discover targets that can help in the management and cure of hepatitis B,” the researcher explains. “[Whatever we find] could serve as a target for drug development, whether for immunostimulants, immunomodulators, or other treatments,” she notes. Reuter began recruiting patients in July and has enrolled 40 participants so far. She plans to reach the full group of 75 participants by the end of this year. The study is scheduled to run until mid-2027. “The hepatitis B virus is one of the leading causes of primary liver cancer, or hepatocellular carcinoma. We’re working here to slow the progression of cirrhosis and liver cancer,” Reuter explains. Hepatitis B Hepatitis B is a silent viral disease that attacks the liver. There is still no cure, and the disease can progress to cirrhosis, liver cancer, and death. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 240 million people were living with chronic hepatitis B infection as of 2024. In Brazil alone, the Ministry of Health reported 276,600 confirmed cases from 2000 to 2022. Hepatitis B can be transmitted through sexual contact and exposure to contaminated blood, including during pregnancy or childbirth, when the virus can be transmitted from mother to baby. According to the Brazilian Society of Clinical Medicine, the hepatitis B virus is 100 times more contagious than HIV. The WHO’s global goal is to eliminate HIV, viral hepatitis, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) as public health threats by 2030. According to a report released by the organization in July this year, annual viral hepatitis infections have fallen by 32 percent globally since 2015, reflecting increased childhood vaccination coverage, which reached 84 percent in 2024.