Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 10
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iranian experts managed to produce hepatitis B diagnostic kits, Abdorreza Ardeshiri, a board member of Bonyakhteh Center affiliated with Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Science, said.
Ardeshiri said the diagnostic kits will be supplied to the market next year, which will begin on March 21, 2015, Iran's Mehr news agency reported on Dec. 10.
Currently, just two countries are producing hepatitis B diagnostic kits, he said.
Ardeshiri said that currently these kits are imported from Russia at about $3,200 per kit, while same kits made in Iran would cost about $550.
Hepatitis B is a serious liver infection caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV). Having chronic hepatitis B increases your risk of developing liver failure, liver cancer or cirrhosis - a condition that causes permanent scarring of the liver.
In Dec. 2013, head of the Iran Hepatitis Network, Seyed Moayed Alavian, said About 1.4 million Iranians suffer from Hepatitis B, which indicates that average prevalence of the disease is about 2 percent.
The world countries are divided in three groups of low, medium and high in terms of hepatitis infection prevalence, Alavian said, adding that Iran ranks medium in terms of the infection prevalence.