Hepatitis could be deadlier than malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS by 2040, says WHO

On World Hepatitis Day, the World Health Organization (WHO) today warned that current trends in the disease, which could kill more people than malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS combined by 2040, need to be halted.

The UN health agency has launched a campaign under the slogan “One Life, One Liver” with the main goal of eradicating hepatitis C as a public health problem within the next seven years.

According to the World Health Organization, more than one million people die each year from hepatitis, the deadliest of which are hepatitis B and C, as currently only 10% and 21% of the 350 million people living with hepatitis are diagnosed .

Furthermore, only 13 percent of patients diagnosed with hepatitis C who were curable with oral therapy received curative treatment, while this rate dropped to 2 percent among patients diagnosed with chronic hepatitis B.

“While we have the best tools ever to prevent, diagnose and treat hepatitis, millions of people around the world still live with undiagnosed and untreated hepatitis,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters. recognized.

Prevent mother-to-child transmission through screening and vaccination

The World Health Organization recommends that, to prevent new infections and deaths from hepatitis B and C, promote access to treatment for all pregnant women with hepatitis B or provide newborns with a vaccine against the disease.

It has also set the aspirational goal of diagnosing 90 percent of hepatitis B and C patients and ensuring that 80 percent of those diagnosed receive treatment.

In the case of hepatitis B, mother-to-child transmission is most common during pregnancy, mainly in the Western Pacific region, Africa and South-East Asia, and testing pregnant women for hepatitis B is key to slowing transmission.

However, only 78% of countries surveyed (64 of 82 countries) claimed to have a national policy on hepatitis B testing during pregnancy, according to a new WHO report.

Of these, only half (32 of 64) reported that they ultimately applied the measures in antenatal care clinics.

In this sense, the World Health Organization insists that increasing hepatitis testing and treatment in HIV programs will play a fundamental role in eliminating hepatitis B in countries most affected by this virus.

In addition, the organization highlighted the inclusion of birth doses of the hepatitis B vaccine in GAVI’s 2018 Vaccine Investment Strategy because it believes “this will boost newborn vaccination programs in West and Central Africa, where rates of mother-to-child transmission very high”. The incidence of hepatitis B remains high.

Hepatitis C is curable but widespread worldwide

For its part, UNITAID, the international body that promotes access to HIV, malaria and tuberculosis treatments in developing countries, joined the WHO call and insisted that hepatitis C is a global health problem “as long as testing and treatment can reach those who need it most and communities”.

“Lack of awareness of risk factors, lack of need for testing for infection, combined with insufficient supply, testing remains too complex and seriously hinders the uptake of new medicines,” said UNITAID spokesperson Herve Verhoosel.

Globally, some 58 million people are living with hepatitis C, but only one in five are diagnosed and far fewer receive treatment, according to UNITAID.

Eighty percent of hepatitis C cases are concentrated in low- and middle-income countries, where the populations with the highest rates of infection (those who inject drugs or are incarcerated) often have the worst access to health services.

“With 1.5 million new hepatitis C infections each year, we cannot wait, we must accelerate development of optimal solutions, remove barriers and facilitate scaling up of key interventions to help achieve a global goal of eliminating viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030 objectives”, concluded the UNITAID spokesperson.