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Cirrhosis and liver cancer cause 15% of all deaths in Mongolia. Now the government is waking up to the issue – and tackling the hepatitis that triggers it.
Danzan Purev beams as he shows members of a support group photos of his infant nephew on his iPhone. The 68-year-old geologist is charismatic and jokes with the others gathered in the room in Ulan Bator. But his mood changes as he begins to recount his long experience with hepatitis, a disease that has blighted his life.
Purev was diagnosed with hepatitis B and C in the early 1990s. By the end of the decade his health and quality of life had deteriorated, leaving him constantly sick and fatigued. He had to sell his business to finance a trip to Korea to undergo treatment, which was not successful. “Financially, I just went down,” he says.
Once back in Mongolia, he was unable to afford hepatitis drugs, and began to lose hope as the disease continued to affect his liver. “I was really scared,” says Purev. “My dad and all the relatives on my dad’s side died of liver cancer and liver disease. I didn’t want to be one of them. I just wanted to keep fighting and cure myself.”
Fortunately, he heard about the non-profit Onom Foundation, which offers screening and treatment for hepatitis. Today he is cured of hepatitis C, has low levels of hepatitis B, and the health of his liver, which at one point was two-thirds non-functional, has improved.
Purev has been lucky. According to the World Health Organization, Mongolia has the world’s highest rate of liver cancer, as well as the highest mortality rate from the disease. Each year, liver cancer and liver cirrhosis account for 15% of all deaths. Chronic hepatitis is the most common risk factor in developing liver cancer, and 400,000 of Mongolia’s 3 million citizens are diagnosed with a hepatitis virus.