Due to heavy drinking, lack of awareness and insufficient early screening, 20,000 Vietnamese die of the liver cancer every year.
Per 100,000 people, approximately 39 Vietnamese men die of liver cancer in 2018 compared to 12.7 globally according to an interactive report by the Global Cancer Observatory (GCO), which is a World Health Organization entity. Taking into account both sexes, the average figure is 23.2 deaths. This places the country only behind Mongolia, Egypt and Gambia. The data also shows that local men are about four times as likely to die of liver cancer than local women.
Liver cancer is the third leading cause of death in Vietnam, ahead of even traffic accidents and lung cancer. Late diagnosis and treatment result in the majority of cases being fatal. Globally the disease is one of the five most deadly cancers.
Frequent alcohol use and smoking are major causes of the disease, according to experts. Vietnam is one of the world's top 10 alcohol consumers and the number is increasing at an alarming rate. On average, local adults drank 6.6 liters of alcohol in 2015, up 70% from 2005.
In addition to drinking, hepatitis B and C increase the likelihood of contracting the disease. In Vietnam, 7.8 million people are infected with hepatitis B and 991,000 with hepatitis C. The highly infectious diseases are spread through blood and body fluids, causing cirrhosis (liver scarring) in addition to cancer.
[Photo via Creative Commons]
