According to the World Health Organization, viral hepatitis infections rank second among infectious diseases worldwide in terms of annual mortality, accounting for 1.3 million deaths annually. The top infectious killer is tuberculosis.
During the World Hepatitis Summit, WHO revealed this in its 2024 Global Hepatitis Reports.
The WHS with the theme “Integrate Accelerate Eliminate” will be held in Lisbon, Portugal, between April 9–11, 2024. The purpose of WHS is to further the global agenda for viral hepatitis and give the hepatitis community a forum to assess current progress, exchange best practices, and exchange experiences in achieving and validating viral hepatitis elimination.
According to the WHO, hepatitis is an infection caused by a range of viruses that inflame the liver and non-infectious substances, resulting in a variety of health issues, some of which are potentially lethal.
The hepatitis virus comes in five primary strains, which are called types A, B, C, D, and E. Though they are all responsible for liver disease, there are several notable differences between them, such as the means of transmission, intensity of the disease, geographic distribution, and approaches to prevention.
Only 18% of babies in the region obtain the hepatitis B birth-dose immunization, despite the fact that the agency reports that 63% of new cases of hepatitis B occur in the African region.
“The treatment coverage among those diagnosed with hepatitis B stands at 23% in the Western Pacific Region, which accounts for 47% of hepatitis B deaths. This is far too low to lower the death rate.
Hepatitis B and C cases worldwide are borne mostly by Bangladesh, China, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, the Russian Federation, and Viet Nam. Restoring the global response to reach the Sustainable Development Goals will require achieving universal access to prevention, diagnosis, and treatment in these ten countries by 2025, in addition to stepped-up efforts in the African Region, the statement stressed.
The World Health Organization said that 3,500 people die from viral hepatitis infections every day, meaning that the number of deaths from the disease is rising.
The WHO report made clear that testing and treatment coverage rates have stagnated in spite of improved diagnostic and treatment instruments and declining product costs.
“These outcomes significantly fall short of the worldwide goals to treat 80% of individuals with chronic hepatitis B and hepatitis C by 2030. They do, however, show a modest but steady improvement in the coverage of diagnosis and treatment since the 2019 estimates were last released. In particular, the diagnosis of hepatitis B climbed from 10% to 13%, and the treatment rate grew from 2% to 3%. Similarly, the diagnosis of hepatitis C increased from 21% to 36%, and the treatment rate increased from 12% to 20%.
The research suggests accelerating the eradication of hepatitis by increasing access to testing and diagnostics; changing the focus from policy to implementation for equitable treatment; bolstering efforts to prevent primary care infections; streamlining service delivery; and optimizing product supply and regulation.
