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World Hepatitis Day 28 July

8 July, 2022

From the WHO website: https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-hepatitis-day/2022

World Hepatitis Day is observed each year on 28 July to raise awareness of viral hepatitis, which causes inflammation of the liver that leads to severe disease and liver cancer. This year's theme: Bringing hepatitis care closer to communities

1,100,000 deaths per year caused by Hepatitis B and C infections

'While we have the guidance and tools to diagnose, treat, and prevent chronic viral hepatitis, these services are often out of reach of communities and are sometimes only available at centralized/specialized hospitals.'

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WHO publishes updated guidance on hepatitis C infection – with new recommendations on treatment of adolescents and children, simplified service delivery and diagnostics

24 June 2022

https://www.who.int/news/item/24-06-2022-WHO-publishes-updated-guidance-...

According to 2019 data, 58 million people live with chronic hepatitis C infection and results in about 400,000 deaths each year. In 2016, WHO set out ambitious goals to eliminate viral hepatitis B and C as a public health threat by 2030. While good progress has been made in several champion countries, there remains a major testing and treatment gap. In 2019, still only 21% of the 58 million with chronic hepatitis C infection had been diagnosed, overall, 13% treated...

”Hepatitis is one of the most devastating diseases on earth, but it’s also one of the most preventable and treatable, with services that can be delivered easily and cheaply at the primary health care level,” said Dr Meg Doherty, Director WHO Global HIV, Hepatitis and STI Programmes. “These updated Guidelines are a step in the right direction and the adoption of these recommendations has the potential to substantially scale up access to testing and treatment in low and middle income countries.”

The 3 key new recommendations include:

1. Simplified service delivery and task sharing...

2. More efficient and simplified hepatitis diagnostics...

3. Harmonized and simplified hepatitis treatment for children and adolescents...

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The first bullet point in the Call to action is directed to the public:

'Educate yourself and play a part to stop transmission of hepatitis in the community'

It would be interesting to know what are the key facts about hepatitis that every person should know. This is a challenge as there are five types of hepatitis (A,B,C,D,E) each with different features. The World Hepatitis Alliance provides an introduction: https://www.worldhepatitisalliance.org/what-is-viral-hepatitis/

Best wishes, Neil

Neil Pakenham-Walsh, Global Coordinator HIFA, www.hifa.org neil@hifa.org

Working in official relations with WHO