WHO Media Mon, 28 Jul 2025
28 July 2025 - Geneva - As we mark World Hepatitis Day, WHO calls on governments and partnersto urgently accelerate efforts to eliminate viral hepatitis as a public healththreat and reduce liver cancer deaths.
"Every 30 seconds, someone dies from ahepatitis-related severe liver disease or liver cancer. Yet we have the toolsto stop hepatitis”, said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
Viral hepatitis – types A, B, C, D, and E – are major causesof acute liver infection. Among these only hepatitis B, C, and D can lead tochronic infections that significantly increase the risk of cirrhosis, liverfailure, or liver cancer. Yet most people with hepatitis don’t know they’reinfected. Types B, C, and D affect over 300 million people globally andcause more than 1.3 million deaths each year, mainly from liver cirrhosisand cancer.
Hepatitis D now classified as carcinogenic
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)recently classified hepatitis D as carcinogenic to humans, just likehepatitis B and C. Hepatitis D, which only affects individuals infected withthe hepatitis B, is associated with a two- to six-fold higher risk of livercancer compared to hepatitis B alone. This reclassification marks a criticalstep in global efforts to raise awareness, improve screening, and expand accessto new treatments for hepatitis D.
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-Prof Joseph Ana
CHIFA Pofile: Joseph Ana is the Lead Senior Fellow/Medical Consultant at the Centre for Clinical Governance Research and Patient Safety (CCGR&PS) with Headquarters in Calabar, Nigeria, established by HRI Global (former HRIWA). He is the Country Coordinator for PACK Nigeria (Practical Approach to Care Kit) which is specifically designed to improve clinical competence (improving accuracy of diagnosis and treatment) in primary health care. He is also a Member of the World Health Organisation’s Technical Advisory Group on Integrated Care in primary, emergency, operative, and critical care (TAG-IC2). As the Cross River State Commissioner for Health (2004-2008), Joseph Ana led the introduction of the evidence based, homegrown quality tool, the 12-Pillar Clinical Governance Programme (12-PCGP) in Nigeria, which also suitable for lower-, low-, and middle income countries (LLMIC) with similar weak health sector and system. To ensure sustainability of 12-PCGP, the ‘Department of Clinical Governance, Servicom & e-health’ was established in Cross River State Ministry of Health in 2007. His main interest is in ‘Whole health sector and system strengthening in LLMICs’. He has written six books on the 12-Pillar Clinical Governance Programme, including the TOOLS manual for its Implementation, currently in its 2nd Edition. He served as Chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association’s Standing Committee on Clinical Governance (2012-2022), and he won the Association’s ‘Award of Excellence’ on three consecutive occasions for the innovation of 12-PCGP in Nigeria. He served as Chairman, Quality & Performance subcommittee of the Technical Working Group for the implementation of the Nigeria Health Act 2014. He was Member, National Tertiary Health Institutions Standards Committee (NTISC) of the Federal Ministry of Health, 2017-2022. He is the pioneer Secretary General/Trustee-Director of the Charity, NMF (Nigerian Medical Forum UK) which took the BMJ to West Africa in 1995. Joseph is a member of the HIFA Steering Group; the HIFA working group on Community Health Workers, and the Working Group on HIFA-WHO Collaboration (http://www.hifa.org/support/members/joseph-0 http://www.hifa.org/people/steering-group). Email: info AT hri-global.org and jneana AT yahoo.co.uk