World Hepatitis Day is observed on 28 July each year. Its purpose is to raise awareness to combat hepatitis and achieve the goals of the World Health Organization (WHO) for the elimination of hepatitis B and hepatitis C as global health threats. The 2025 theme, “Let’s Break It Down”, calls for collective action to break down the remaining barriers to prevention, care and the cure of hepatitis.
Hepatitis B and hepatitis C are often hidden infections; they can exist in the body undetected for years until they cause liver failure or liver cancer, the third leading cause of cancer deaths. As a result, public awareness, political attention and investment remain limited. Yet the numbers demand our urgent attention: worldwide, 305 million people have hepatitis B or hepatitis C, causing 1.3 million deaths per year – exceeding deaths from HIV (human immunodeficiency virus).1
Recognizing this crisis, the United Nations, in Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 3.3, challenged the world to combat hepatitis. In response, the World Health Assembly in 2016 unanimously endorsed the WHO goals for eliminating hepatitis B and hepatitis C. The benefits of hepatitis elimination are substantial: for health, preventing 36 million infections and averting 10 million deaths; for economies, increasing productivity by $145 billion.2
Now, nearly ten years since setting these goals, recent global reports reveal both remarkable achievements and persistent barriers in the world’s journey towards hepatitis elimination.
Achievement: vaccination of children to prevent hepatitis B and liver cancer
With the assistance of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (Gavi), the United Nations Children's Fund and other partners, most countries vaccinate infants to prevent hepatitis B. For example, since 1992, China raised infant vaccination coverage to over 90 per cent, preventing 40 million new infections. Globally, since 1990, childhood hepatitis B vaccination has averted over 22 million deaths. Through this collective effort, the world met the 2020 interim global goal of fewer than 1 in 100 children infected with hepatitis B.
Challenge: protecting newborns in Africa from hepatitis B
Newborns infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV) during birth have a 90 per cent risk of lifelong infection and risk of death from liver cancer. To protect newborns, vaccination must begin quickly, preferably within 24 hours of birth. Maternal hepatitis B screening to detect and treat infected mothers provides extra protection. In the WHO African region, fewer than one in five newborns receive timely hepatitis B vaccination. Today, globally, about two of every three new chronic HBV infections are among the children of Africa. The Coalition for Global Hepatitis Elimination and partners are working to improve vaccine coverage through education and national policy development. Gavi now supports hepatitis B vaccination for newborns. The pay-off in better health is great: vaccinating 90 per cent of newborns in Africa will prevent 500,000 deaths from hepatitis B.
Achievement: infection control to prevent HBV and HCV
Both hepatitis B and C are blood-borne viruses. Unsafe medical practices, especially the reuse of syringes, pose a major risk of transmission. Global efforts to promote safe injection practices have changed behaviours: today, 95 per cent of medical injections worldwide are given with sterile equipment. However, unsafe medical injections still pose risks, particularly in South Asia and other regions where injectable medicines are often preferred.
Challenge: hepatitis C transmission among persons who inject drugs
Globally, about 50 per cent of persons who inject drugs have been infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV). Prevention requires access to harm-reduction services, i.e., sterile needles, opioid substitution therapy and testing and treatment for hepatitis C. Yet only a few countries (e.g., Australia, Canada) provide adequate harm-reduction services, underscoring the need for greater investment and political will to protect populations most vulnerable to hepatitis C.
Achievement: model national programmes to test, treat and cure hepatitis C
The treatments for hepatitis C are miracles of modern medicine – the first drugs to cure a chronic viral infection. Taken as pills for two to three months, these medications cure over 95 per cent of people with hepatitis C. Medication costs have fallen globally to a $60 treatment course available through the Global Fund. No longer should anyone die of hepatitis C.
Pioneer countries committed early to hepatitis C elimination. Most notably, Egypt launched large-scale screening to diagnose approximately 90 per cent of people with hepatitis C, and cure over 90 per cent of their infections. Consequently, hepatitis C prevalence decreased from 10 per cent to 0.4 per cent, and Egypt was the first country awarded the WHO Gold Tier for progress towards hepatitis C elimination. Georgia, Rwanda and Spain are examples of other countries with model programmes moving far along towards the elimination of hepatitis C.
Challenge: scaling up testing and treatment for hepatitis C
To reach global elimination goals, more countries must scale up hepatitis C testing and care. Globally, only about one in three people living with hepatitis C are diagnosed and fewer still receive treatment. This gap is compounded by lack of awareness of the hepatitis C burden; limited integration of HCV testing and treatment into national health systems; and inequities in hepatitis C care for rural communities, those who are incarcerated and persons who inject drugs.
To address these gaps, countries with model programmes can share simplified testing and treatment strategies with others. People with lived experience can serve as patient navigators and as ambassadors building trusted community relationships. Fortunately, the global movement is not idle. Countries from Brazil to Japan to Thailand have programmes underway to eliminate hepatitis C.
Challenge: expanding access to hepatitis B care and treatment
Effective, low-cost antiviral medications can treat hepatitis B, cutting liver cancer risk in half. However, of the estimated 254 million people with hepatitis B, only 13 per cent are diagnosed and a scant number receive treatment.
WHO recently simplified treatment criteria, increasing eligibility for treatment by non-liver specialists. To improve the health of people with hepatitis B in low- and middle-income countries, the recently launched Center for Operational Research on Hepatitis B is seeking to develop pathways of simplified care and integrated service delivery.
Building global solidarity to eliminate hepatitis
Partnerships among government officials, industry, civil society, health systems and multilateral institutions bring together expertise and financial resources needed to overcome remaining barriers. At the United Nations, Egypt spearheaded the launch in 2022 of the UN Group of Friends to Eliminate Hepatitis, now co-chaired by the United Nations missions of Brazil, Malaysia, Pakistan and Uganda.
The Group provides a forum for Member States to exchange information on progress and innovations. Through collective influence, the Group convenes events and develops resolutions that accelerate progress towards WHO goals. Currently, the Group is advocating for the inclusion of hepatitis elimination in the high-level political declaration on non-communicable diseases, to be adopted during the eightieth session of the United Nations General Assembly. Recognizing hepatitis B and C elimination as the most effective way to prevent liver cancer will mobilize attention, partnerships and – at a challenging time – also investments in hepatitis elimination.
A shared responsibility
Success for hepatitis B elimination is furthest along among children through vaccination. Patient safety from hepatitis C has greatly improved. Model programmes demonstrate that with national commitments, countries can scale up vaccination, injection safety, harm reduction, testing and care to reach elimination goals.
This World Hepatitis Day, let us celebrate these successes. Let us reaffirm our global commitment to ending hepatitis as a public health threat. We have effective vaccines, reliable tests and curative treatments. What is needed now is political will, investment and solidarity. By embedding hepatitis elimination into national health plans, keeping commitments to United Nations goals and working together, we can achieve a future free of hepatitis. Today and every day, let’s break down barriers and achieve hepatitis elimination.
Notes
1Except where indicated, data is from “A 2024 global report on national policy, programmes, and progress towards hepatitis B elimination: findings from 33 hepatitis elimination profiles” and “A 2024 global report on national policies, programmes, and progress towards hepatitis C elimination: findings from 33 hepatitis elimination profiles”, in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology, vol 10, No. 7 (July 2025); and the National Hepatitis Elimination Profiles of the Coalition for Global Hepatitis Elimination, a programme of The Task Force for Global Health.
2Figures derived from the modelling of scenarios for the scaling up of testing and treatment of hepatitis B and C, consistent with the World Health Organization (WHO) targets for elimination by 2030. See Christopher P. Seaman and others, "A global investment case for hepatitis B elimination: a modelling study", The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology, vol. 8, No. 10 (October 2023) and Nick Scott and others, "A model of the economic benefits of global hepatitis C elimination: an investment case", The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology, vol. 5, No. 10 (October 2020).
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