WHO warns that hepatitis could be more deadly than malaria, tuberculosis and HIV by 2040

Marking World Hepatitis Day, the World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday stressed the urgent need to halt current trends in the disease, which will kill more people by 2040 than malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS combined.

The United Nations 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 from hepatitis every year. The deadliest are types B and C, as of the 350 million people currently living with these two diseases, only 10% (B) and 21% (C) have been diagnosed.

Furthermore, only 13% of patients diagnosed with hepatitis C that was curable with oral therapy received curative treatment, while this dropped to 2% of patients diagnosed with chronic hepatitis B.

“Even though 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”Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, told the media at the United Nations.

To prevent new infections and deaths from hepatitis B and C, WHO recommends that all pregnant women infected with hepatitis B be offered treatment or their newborns vaccinated against the disease.

In addition, it has set the ideal goal of diagnosing 90% of hepatitis B and C patients and ensuring that 80% of diagnosed patients receive treatment.

For hepatitis B, mother-to-child transmission during pregnancy is the most common cause, occurring primarily in the Western Pacific, Africa, and Southeast Asia.where testing pregnant women with hepatitis B testing is key to stopping the spread.

However, a new WHO report shows that only 78% of the countries studied (64 out of 82 countries) reported having a national policy on hepatitis B screening during pregnancy.

Of these, only half (32 out of 64) declared that they eventually implemented these measures in their antenatal care clinic.

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

Additionally, the organization highlighted the inclusion of a birth-dose hepatitis B vaccine in GAVI’s 2018 vaccine investment strategy, arguing that it “will facilitate neonatal vaccination programs in West and Central Africa, where mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis is high” high”. B is still high. “

UnitaiD, the international body that promotes access to HIV, malaria and tuberculosis treatments in developing countries, has joined the WHO’s call and insisted that hepatitis C is a global health problem that “can be solved if testing and treatment” can reach those who need it most. their people and communities. “

“Lack of awareness of risk factors and the lack of need for infection testing, combined with insufficient supplies and testing that remains too complex, are seriously hampering the availability of new medicines,” said UNITAID spokesperson Herve Verhoosel.

Data provided by UNITAID indicate that approximately 58 million people worldwide have hepatitis C, but only one in five is diagnosed and far fewer receive treatment.

80% of hepatitis C cases are concentrated in low- and middle-income countries, where the populations with the highest incidence of hepatitis C (people who inject drugs or incarcerated people) often have the poorest access to health services.

“1.5 million new people infected with hepatitis C every year“We cannot wait and must accelerate the development of the best solutions, remove barriers and promote the scale-up of critical interventions to help achieve the global goal of eliminating viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030,” concluded the UNITAID spokesperson .

(Taken from EFE)