WHO Calls on Governments to Accelerate Efforts to Eliminate Viral Hepatitis

WHO is calling on governments to “urgently accelerate efforts to eliminate viral hepatitis as a public health threat and reduce liver cancer threats.”

Viral hepatitis types A, B, C, D, and E are all “major causes of acute liver infection. Among these only hepatitis B, C, and D can lead to chronic infections that significantly increase the risk of cirrhosis, liver failure, or liver cancer. Yet most people with hepatitis don’t know they’re infected. Types B, C, and D affect over 300 million people globally and cause more than 1.3 million deaths each year, mainly from liver cirrhosis and cancer.”

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) “recently classified hepatitis D as carcinogenic to humans.” Hepatitis D only affects individuals infected with hepatitis B and is “associated with a two- to six-fold higher risk of liver cancer compared to hepatitis B alone.”

Treatment with “oral medicine can cure Hepatitis C within 2 to 3 months and effectively suppress hepatitis B with life-long therapy. Treatment options for hepatitis D are evolving. However, the full benefit of reducing liver cirrhosis and cancer deaths can only be realized through urgent action to scale up and integrate hepatitis services – including vaccination, testing, harm reduction, and treatment – into national health systems.”

The number of countries with strategic plans for hepatitis is growing, but “testing and treatment coverage remain critically low” worldwide, as “only 13% of people with hepatitis B and 36% with hepatitis C had been diagnosed by 2022.”