The latest data from the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Hepatitis Report 2024 show that viral hepatitis remains a major public health challenge, with the world still far from eliminating it by 2030. Hepatitis B and C continue to cause significant mortality, claiming over 1.3 million lives each year due to complications like liver disease and cancer. In 2022, viral hepatitis and tuberculosis were the second leading causes of death among communicable diseases following COVID-19.
Globally, an estimated 254 million people are living with hepatitis B, 50 million with hepatitis C, and 6,000 people are newly infected with viral hepatitis each day. In most countries, many people remain undiagnosed, and even when hepatitis is diagnosed, the number of people receiving treatment remains incredibly low.
Despite the availability of affordable medicines, many countries are not fully utilising these treatments due to policy, programmatic, and access barriers. Similarly, many infants do not receive the hepatitis B birth-dose vaccination along with at least two additional recommended doses despite the low cost of this intervention. Funding for viral hepatitis remains limited.
Urgent and coordinated action is needed to overcome these obstacles and get the global response back on track. This includes increasing funding, improving diagnosis rates, expanding treatment accessibility, and addressing systemic barriers. It is crucial to maximise the use of available tools and ensure fair access to interventions to effectively end the hepatitis epidemics.
