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Friday, 05 Jul, 2019
Insights on ‘The Success of the Hepatitis B Vaccine Project: 34 years later’
Dr Gabriel Oon Chong Jin, a renowned medical oncologist, gave a talk on 4 July 2019 at Duke-NUS Medical School about his successful journey in vaccinating Singapore from Hepatitis B. He forged an illustrious career as a ‘Clinician Scientist’ even before the term was known to the world.
His Early Achievements
Dr Oon is a consultant physician and investor with five patents to his name. As principal investigator at the Hepatitis & Liver Cancer Unit at Ransome Research Laboratory – where the Hepatitis B vaccine project was developed – he worked closely with the International Agency for Research on Cancer and World Health Organization to bring the National Hepatitis B Vaccine Programme to fruition.
Having graduated from Cambridge University, he obtained his Cambridge M.D in cancer immunology in 1973, studying the mechanism of how cancer develops, as well as on the Continuous Cell Separator. Dr Oon was the principal investigator for the World Health Organization and International Agency for Research in Cancer where he studied the prevention of Liver Cancer by Hepatitis B vaccine. He was the first Chairman for the Ministry of Health’s Scientific and Advisory Committee on Hepatitis and related diseases in 1983.
The War Against Hepatitis
Hepatitis is a disease that makes the liver swell and malfunction; the symptoms include jaundice, fever and abdominal pain. There are at least six Hepatitis viruses – Hepatitis A, B, C, D, E, and G – and it is possible to become infected with different types of Hepatitis at varying times, or even concurrently.
Hepatitis B, a DNA virus, is some 50 to 100 times more contagious than the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), making it one of the world’s most infectious killer diseases. Today, more than 360 million people worldwide live with chronic infection from the Hepatitis B virus (HBV). The disease is spread by contact with infected blood and body fluids. One of the most common routes of transmission is from a mother to the baby at birth.
In the early days, when Singapore first received 20 vials of the Hepatitis B vaccine. Dr Oon became the first volunteer to be injected with the Hepatitis B vaccine, along with 19 other medical and scientific staff members from the “Ransome team” to convince the public and the Prime Minister of Singapore then, Mr Lee Kuan Yew of the safety of the vaccine. Dr Oon’s sons were also the first children in Singapore to receive the vaccine. As the vaccination proved effective and the volunteers showed no ill effects, more medical and nursing staff came forward to be vaccinated when doses of the vaccine became available.
This revolutionary vaccine continued as more Singaporeans took part in the clinical trials. 1st October 2010 marked the 25th anniversary of the implementation of the National Hepatitis B Vaccination Programme in Singapore aimed at eradicating the disease from all newborns in the country. The success of this programme led, several years later, to a gathering of world experts – including professionals from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) – to Singapore. These experts endorsed the Hepatitis B vaccine as a safe and effective way to prevent a disease now recognised as one of the world’s major causes of primary liver cancer.
The Breakthroughs Thus Far
Dr Gabriel Oon also spoke about his book, ‘A Cancer Vaccine that Transformed Singapore and the World’, which celebrates the collective efforts of scientists and researchers who have worked on combating this battle. In fact, international collaboration fuelled Singapore’s immunisation programme as much as local factors and circumstances. The vaccine project itself might well have stalled without the guidance and involvement of IARC. In turn, Singapore’s Hepatitis B research findings and national vaccination campaign were shared internationally, promoting many other countries to implement their own vaccination programmes. The Hepatitis B vaccine saved millions of lives globally. But the war is not over. As governments around the world continue to design strategies for control, prevention and elimination of Hepatitis B virus, thorough knowledge of this deadly virus will still be the best defence.