The World Health Organization (WHO) has published a new report on Tuesday that is essentially a progress report on humanity's ongoing war against viral hepatitis - and the grades are mixed, like a student who aced the final but bombed the midterm.
Here's the bad news: hepatitis B and C, which together account for 95 per cent of all hepatitis-related deaths worldwide, claimed 1.34 million lives in 2024. That's a lot of funerals. Meanwhile, transmission continues at a rate of about 1.8 million new infections annually - or more than 4,900 cases every day. That's like a small city getting infected every year, but without the municipal services.
Hepatitis B, for those who don't remember their high school biology, is a viral infection that attacks the liver. It can be spread through contact with infected body fluids such as blood, saliva, vaginal fluids and semen, or passed from mother to baby. It can be acute or chronic, with chronic infection raising the risk of death from cirrhosis and liver cancer. Hepatitis C, meanwhile, is an inflammation of the liver caused by a virus of the same name, spread through exposure to infected blood from unsafe injections, sharing needles, or unscreened blood transfusions.
Now for the good news, because there is some: since 2015, new hepatitis B infections have declined by 32 per cent, and hepatitis C-related deaths have dropped by 12 per cent. Hepatitis B prevalence among children under five has also fallen to 0.6 per cent, with 85 countries achieving or surpassing the 2030 target of reducing prevalence to 0.1 per cent. That's genuinely impressive, like finding out your procrastinating friend actually finished the project ahead of schedule.
But - and you knew there was a but - current rates are insufficient to meet all 2030 elimination targets. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said countries have shown that "eliminating hepatitis is not a pipedream," but efforts must accelerate. "Many people remain undiagnosed and untreated due to stigma, weak health systems and inequitable access to care," he said. "While we have the tools to eliminate hepatitis as a public health threat, urgent scale-up of prevention, diagnosis and treatment is needed if the world is to meet the 2030 targets."
The report estimates that 287 million people - roughly 3 per cent of the global population - were living with chronic hepatitis B or C infection in 2024. That's a lot of people who could really use a doctor's visit.
Regionally, the WHO African Region accounted for 68 per cent of new hepatitis B infections, but only 17 per cent of newborns there received a birth-dose vaccination. That's like having a fire extinguisher but leaving it in the closet. For hepatitis C, people who inject drugs accounted for 44 per cent of new infections, underscoring the need for stronger harm reduction services and safe injection practices.
Access to treatment remains limited. Although 240 million people were living with chronic hepatitis B in 2024, fewer than five per cent were receiving treatment. Furthermore, only 20 per cent of people with hepatitis C have been treated since new effective treatment became available in 2015. Limited access to prevention and care continues to drive mortality: in 2024, roughly 1.1 million people died from hepatitis B and 240,000 from hepatitis C, mainly due to liver cirrhosis and liver cancer.
Ten countries in Asia and Africa - Bangladesh, China, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, the Philippines, South Africa and Viet Nam - accounted for nearly 70 per cent of hepatitis B related deaths worldwide that year. For hepatitis C, the top 10 countries - China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, South Africa, the United States and Viet Nam - accounted for 58 per cent of global cases.
Despite these challenges, WHO pointed to the highly effective tools already available. The hepatitis B vaccine is more than 95 per cent effective against both acute and chronic infections, while long-term antiviral treatment can help manage chronic infection. Short-course therapy for hepatitis C, lasting 8 to 12 weeks, can cure more than 95 per cent of cases. So, we have the weapons; we just need to actually use them.
Dr. Tereza Kasaeva, Director of WHO's Department for HIV, TB, Hepatitis and Sexually Transmitted Infections, stressed the need to improve access to care. "The data shows that progress is possible but also reveals where we are falling short. Every missed diagnosis and untreated infection due to chronic viral hepatitis represents a preventable death," she said. "Countries must move faster to integrate hepatitis services for people living with hepatitis B and C into primary care, and to reach the communities most affected."
The report identifies priority actions, including scaling up treatment for chronic hepatitis B infection in the WHO African and Western Pacific regions, expanding access to hepatitis C treatment in the Eastern Mediterranean region, stronger political commitment and increased financing to expand access to hepatitis B birth-dose vaccination and medicine to prevent mother-to-child transmission, and improving injection safety both in and outside healthcare settings, including through strengthened harm reduction services for injecting drug users.
So, in summary: we have the tools, we're making progress, but we're not moving fast enough. The WHO is essentially yelling, "Come on, people, we can do this!" from the rooftops. Let's hope someone is listening.