The World Health Organisation (WHO) now estimates that 71 million people were living with chronic hepatitis C infection in 2015, of which only 13.1 million people knew about their status in 2017.
It is the second major ‘infectious disease’ killer, after tuberculosis, and nine times more people are infected with hepatitis than HIV.
Hepatitis is preventable, treatable and in the case of hepatitis C, curable. However, over 80 per cent of the people living with the disease are not aware they have the disease and are thereby unable to treat/manage it.
WHO is now calling on countries to take advantage of the recent reduction in the cost of diagnosing and treating viral hepatitis so as to eliminate the disease globally.
This call was made in a press statement released by the UN health agency on Friday ahead of the World Hepatitis Day.
The World Hepatitis Day, observed every July 28, is aimed at raising global awareness on hepatitis.
Viral hepatitis is the inflammation of the liver tissue. There are five groups of the disease, A, B, C, D and E. The disease is a silent killer because most people do not know the symptoms and often do not get diagnosed until late stages of the disease.
Over 95 per cent of hepatitis-related deaths are caused by chronic hepatitis B and C infections, while hepatitis A and E rarely cause life-threatening illness. Hepatitis D is an additional infection occurring in people living with hepatitis B
For this year’s campaign, WHO is urging all countries and partners to focus on the elimination of the disease with the theme “invest in eliminating of hepatitis”.
According to a new WHO study published in Lancet Global Health, investing $6 billion (2.2 billion) per year on eliminating hepatitis in 67 low and middle-income countries would avert 4.5 million premature deaths by 2030 and more than 26 million deaths beyond that target date.
