WHO insists on viral hepatitis termination
On the eve of the World Hepatitis
Summit in Brazil, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports increasing global
momentum in the response to viral hepatitis.
A record 3 million people were
able to obtain treatment for hepatitis C over the past two years, and 2.8
million more people embarked on lifelong treatment for hepatitis B in 2016.
“We have seen a nearly 5-fold
increase in the number of countries developing national plans to eliminate
life-threatening viral hepatitis over the last 5 years,” says Dr Gottfried
Hirnschall, Director of WHO's Department of HIV and Global Hepatitis Programme.
“These results bring hope that the elimination of hepatitis can and will become
a reality.”
Hosted by the Government of
Brazil, the World Hepatitis Summit 2017 is being co-organized by the World
Health Organization and the World Hepatitis Alliance. The summit aims to
encourage more countries to take decisive action to tackle hepatitis which
still causes more than 1.3 million deaths every year and affects more than 325
million people.
“We cannot lose sight of the fact
that last year 194 governments committed to eliminating viral hepatitis by
2030. For sure we are still a long way from this goal but that doesn’t mean
it’s some unattainable dream. It’s eminently achievable. It just requires
immediate action,” says Charles Gore, President of World Hepatitis Alliance.
“The World Hepatitis Summit 2017 is all about how to turn WHO’s global strategy
into concrete actions and inspire people to leave with a ‘can do’ attitude.”
“Brazil is honored to host the
World Hepatitis Summit 2017 – and welcomes this extraordinary team of experts,
researchers, managers and civil society representatives to discuss the global
health problem posed by viral hepatitis,” says Dr Adele Schwartz Benzaken,
Director of the Brazilian Ministry of Health’s Department of Surveillance,
Prevention and Control of STIs, HIV/AIDS and Viral Hepatitis.”Brazil is
committed to taking recent advances in its response to hepatitis forward – on
the road to elimination.”
Progress in treatment and cure
Many countries are demonstrating
strong political leadership, facilitating dramatic price reductions in
hepatitis medicines, including through the use of generic medicines—which allow
better access for more people within a short time.
In 2016, 1.76 million people were
newly treated for hepatitis C , a significant increase on the 1.1 million
people who were treated in 2015. The 2.8 million additional people starting
lifelong treatment for hepatitis B in 2016 was a marked increase from the 1.7
million people starting it in 2015. But these milestones represent only initial
steps – access to treatment must be increased globally if the 80% treatment
target is to be reached by 2030.
However, funding remains a major
constraint: most countries lack adequate financial resources to fund key
hepatitis services.
Diagnosis challenge
To achieve rapid scale-up of
treatment, countries need urgently to increase uptake of testing and diagnosis
for hepatitis B and C. As of 2015, an estimated 1 in 10 people living with
hepatitis B, and 1 in 5 people living with hepatitis C, were aware of their
infection. Countries need to improve policies, and programmes to increase
awareness and subsequent diagnosis.
Prevention gaps
Countries need to provide a full
range of hepatitis prevention services that are accessible to different
population groups, particularly those at greater risk.
Largely due to increases in the
uptake of hepatitis B vaccine, hepatitis B infection rates in children under 5
fell to 1.3% in 2015, from 4.7% in the pre-vaccine era.
However, the delivery of other
prevention services, such as birth-dose vaccination for hepatitis B, harm
reduction services for people who inject drugs, and infection control in many
health services, remains low. This has led to continuing rates of new
infections, including 1.75 million new hepatitis C cases every year.
Need for innovation
Innovation in many aspects of the
hepatitis response must continue. New tools required include a functional cure
for hepatitis B infection and the development of more effective point-of-care
diagnostic tools for both hepatitis B and C.
“We cannot meet the ambitious
hepatitis elimination targets without innovation in prevention interventions
and approaches, and implementing them to scale,” said Dr Ren Minghui, Assistant
Director-General for Communicable Diseases, WHO. “The great successes of
hepatitis B vaccination programmes in many countries need to be replicated and
sustained globally in the context of moving forward to universal health
coverage.“
Implementation of elimination strategy
The World Hepatitis Summit 2017
will be attended by over 900 delegates from more than 100 countries, including
Ministers of Health, national programme managers, and representatives from
organizations of people affected by viral hepatitis. The Summit will review
progress and renew commitments by global partners to achieve the elimination of
viral hepatitis by 2030 – a target reflected in WHO's elimination strategy and
the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
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