Review for 10.1186/s12876-022-02458-9 (2022)

Title: Awareness and treatment of Chronic Hepatitis B in Malaysia- findings from a community-
based screening campaign
Version: 1 Date: 31 May 2022
Reviewer:  Catherine Freeland
Reviewer's report:
I would first like to commend the authors for this work- screening 10K individuals for hepatitis
B is no easy task and it is extremely important as the authors note in the paper. I would like to
provide some suggestions that would add strength to the paper and I know that more literature
is needed in this space so am happy the authors are putting it forward for publication. This is
important work and an important topic. I appreciate the author's efforts.
For the introduction section- I might suggest adding any available information on hepatitis B
in Malaysia- prevalence data or even if there is something published that notes the lack of data
here would be helpful to make the case for the need to expand hepatitis services in Malaysia.
Additionally, information on community-based screening, why it is important, and how it can
supplement the lack of screening with providers might be valuable within the introduction.
Noting why this community screening is important is what I am getting at here- what gap is
it filling why is it needed. Is it because there is low testing generally in Malaysia, there is a
shortage of providers, and hepatitis B testing is not widely available because of X, Y, and Z
and we are bringing services directly to where it is needed for example. Just further justification
for this service.
For the methods section- I would love to see more details on how the screening was carried out.
How many screenings took place, where, when, and how often would be helpful. At what point
was the screening questionnaire conducted- before or after testing during the testing event? Any
other details that were collected as part of the screening would be helpful to include here. If you
can consider someone who might want to replicate your program- what would you tell them
in a step-by-step manner to do this. Additionally, if you can reference the questionnaire in the
methods and include it as a figure or table in the appendix would be helpful. Additionally, what
is the process if someone tests, positive, negative, etc. how do they follow up what are the next
steps for individuals after testing- how do they find out about their test results? How was linkage
to care sites identified? Just more details on the process of how this happens would be really
helpful to include. Additionally, for any analysis- how was data stored, and how was it analyzed?
Results- Clairification on the second paragraph, the first sentence would be helpful or if you can
split this sentence into two with a bit more context that would be helpful.
Discussion- I think more justification as to why the cascade of care is a problem needs a bit
more data. If you can bring in that data or describe further some of the hepatitis B barriers that
would be really helpful. Really use this as an opportunity to make the case for this as broken
and why in detail this is happening.
Abstract- the abstract will need to be updated based on the suggestions above.
I might also suggest changing the title to reflect the paper itself- maybe just Awareness and
treatment of Hepatitis B in Malaysia- Findings from a community-based screening campaign.