Far too few hepatitis cases are diagnosed and treated worldwide, with the number of people who died from the viral disease rising from 1.1 million in 2019 to 1.3 million in 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in Geneva on Tuesday.
As many as 83% of deaths were due to hepatitis B and 17% to hepatitis C, the WHO said.
There are five different types of hepatitis caused by different viruses, from A to E. Hepatitis B and C, which are among the main causes of liver cirrhosis and liver cancer and to which the WHO report mainly refers, are particularly dangerous.
The WHO recorded a slight decline in new hepatitis infections, from 2.5 million in 2019 to 2.2 million in 2022, indicating that vaccination campaigns and other preventive measures are having an effect. Nevertheless, 6,000 people are still infected every day, the organization emphasized.
Only 13% of all people with chronic hepatitis B had been diagnosed with the disease by the end of 2022, and only 3% had access to antiviral therapy. For hepatitis C, around a third of cases were diagnosed and around a fifth of those affected were receiving treatment.
The WHO criticized the fact that many countries were still buying hepatitis drugs at too high a price, even though cheaper generics were available on the market. In addition, tests and treatments are not financed by the state in many places but have to be paid for by the patients.