Editorial - Message from the Editors of e-WGN - J. Enrique Domínguez-Muñoz, MD - Christina M. Surawicz, MD, MACG

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WORLD GASTROENTEROLOGY NEWS Official e-newsletter of the World Gastroenterology Organisation VOL. 19, ISSUE 4 JANUARY 2015 In this issue www.worldgastroenterology.org Message from the Editors of e-WGN J. Enrique Domínguez-Muñoz, MD Director of the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology University Hospital of Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela, Spain In this issue you will find many articles of interest. Our two scientific articles both address viral co-infections. Patients with Hepatitis B and C co-infection and patients with HIV and Hepatitis B or C co-infection have significantly higher morbidity and mortality than those with monoinfection. The excellent article by Dr. Liu from Taiwan addresses Hepatitis C and Hepatitis B co-infection, which is a major health concern in Southeast Asia. Optimal treatment strategies remain to be developed and the role of new direct-acting antiviral drugs will be important in future clinical trials. Drs. Spearman and Sonderup from South Africa have written a timely article about HIV infection which is a major health concern in sub-Saharan Africa; in fact they call this the global epicenter as 70% of those infected worldwide live here (even though this is only 11% of the world population). Their article addresses co-infection of HIV with either Hepa-titis B or Hepatitis C. Here co-infection with Hepatitis B is more common than Hepatitis C. They review treatment strate-gies and stress the need for affordable and accurate diagnostic tests and availability of affordable and effective therapies. These two articles will be of great inter-est to anyone interested in global health— the messages are important to all of us. Also of interest is an article related to the WGO Global Guideline on common gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms in the community including heartburn, abdomi-nal pain/ discomfort, bloating, and consti-pation, which was developed in 2013 by a joint committee consisting of GI experts, primary care physicians, and representa-tives of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP). The World Congress of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, held 30 August – 4 September 2014 in Bangkok, Thailand, provided an oppor-tunity for review of the guidelines with WGO members, and the summary article is very relevant to patient care as well as to Outcomes and Treatments of Dual Chronic Hepatitis B and C Chun-Jen Liu, MD, PhD HIV/HBV and HIV/HCV Co-infection in Sub-Saharan Africa: Transmission, Disease Outcomes, and Treatment Options Mark W. Sonderup, MD C. Wendy Spearman, MD Summary of our World Digestive Health Day Event, “Human Gut Microbiota in Health & Disease” Brigita Smolović, PhD Christina M. Surawicz, MD, MACG Professor of Medicine Division of Gastroenterology Department of Medicine University of Washington School of Medicine Seattle, USA


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