Doctors, liver specialist team up to better fight hepatitis in Alberta

Abdel-Aziz Shaheen, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Calgary, collaborated with geography colleagues to map hepatitis B hotspots in northeast Calgary and north and central Edmonton, improving testing protocols and reducing sometimes years-long waits to see a liver specialist so more cases can be identified and treated, particularly the more aggressive hepatitis D.

Hepatitis B is endemic in regions with high immigration from affected areas; universal vaccination in Canada since the 1990s has reduced domestic transmission but prevalence is expected to rise with immigration patterns.