By Anjali Sharma
UNITED NATIONS – World Health Agency on Monday urged the governments and partners to boost their efforts to eliminate viral hepatitis as a public health threat and reduce liver cancer deaths.
UN agency issued the appeal on World Hepatitis Day.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said “Every 30 seconds, someone dies from a hepatitis-related severe liver disease or liver cancer. Yet we have the tools to stop hepatitis”.
The agency noted that viral hepatitis – types A, B, C, D and E – are the main causes of acute liver infections, but only hepatitis B, C and D can lead to chronic disease, significantly increasing the risk of cirrhosis, liver failure and liver cancer.
It noted that most people with hepatitis are unaware that they are infected. Types B, C, and D affect over 300 million people globally and cause more than 1.3 million deaths each year, mainly from liver cirrhosis and cancer.
World Hepatitis Day is observed annually on 28 July.
The theme for this year Let’s Break It Down, called for urgent action to dismantle the financial, social and systemic barriers that stand in the way of hepatitis elimination and liver cancer prevention.
International Agency for Research on Cancer a specialized branch of WHO has classified hepatitis D as a human carcinogen, along with types B and C.
Hepatitis D, only develops in people already infected with hepatitis B, increases the risk of liver cancer two to six times compared with hepatitis B alone.
WHO said the disease’s reclassification “marks a critical step in global efforts to raise awareness, improve screening, and expand access to new treatments for hepatitis D.”
The agency said that oral treatment can cure hepatitis C in two to three months and effectively suppress hepatitis B with lifelong therapy, the agency said.
The treatment options for hepatitis D continue to evolve, reducing the incidence of cirrhosis and liver cancer will only occur with significant expansion and deepening of vaccination, testing, and treatment programmes, WHO concluded.
