Viral Hepatitis

In the past years, improvements in screening practices have enabled healthcare providers to identify an increased number of cases of advanced liver diseases in chronically infected patients. Due to the large number of people unaware that they are chronically infected with hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis C (HCV) the identification of new advanced liver diseases will continue to increase as people progress in their disease and more screening is undertaken. This will generate increased pressure on healthcare systems and society. Viral hepatitis causes 75% of the world’s primary liver cancer, which is now the second most common cause of death due to cancer worldwide.

Significant limitations in access to technologies exist across the world – due to combination of inadequate funding, stigma surrounding the condition, limited understanding of the disease by physicians and patients themselves, and lack of comprehensive models of care that provide linkages between screening and care.

Addressing these multiple challenges requires a holistic and intersectoral approach, in which all key stakeholders – including the biopharmaceutical industry – are encouraged to work together to create sustainable, locally-appropriate solutions to limit the burden posed by viral hepatitis on health care systems, society and, most importantly, people infected and their communities. It is only through taking such an intersectoral approach that a sustainable response to viral hepatitis may be found, and significant steps towards its effective eradication, as a public health concern, may be envisaged.