Geneva: The World Health Organization on Tuesday said progress in eliminating hepatitis was too slow, with tools available to eliminate the disease that kills more than one million people annually.
The WHO said viral hepatitis B and C — the two infections responsible for 95 percent of hepatitis-related deaths worldwide — claimed 1.34 million lives in 2024.
More than 1.8 million new infections are recorded every year, it said.
“Progress is too slow and uneven,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
“Many people remain undiagnosed and untreated due to stigma, weak health systems and inequitable access to care.
“While we have the tools to eliminate hepatitis as a public health threat, urgent scale-up of prevention, diagnosis and treatment is needed.”
Hepatitis is a liver inflammation caused by a variety of infectious viruses and non-infectious agents leading to a range of health problems, including severe liver damage and cancer.There are five main strains, with B and C among the main infections disease killers.
