‘Declare health emergency’ to end hepatitis in Asia

Countries in Asia Pacific are unlikely to meet their commitment to eliminate hepatitis by 2030 unless they declare a public health emergency, as they did with COVID-19, a disease specialist suggested. Hepatitis – an inflammation of the liver — is the second most deadly infectious disease in the world, surpassing tuberculosis and behind only COVID-19, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). It claims 3,500 lives each day. The WHO set a target in 2016 of cutting new infections by 90 per cent and deaths by 65 per cent before 2030, as well as treating 80 per cent of people affected, in order to end the disease. However, Saeed Hamid, professor at the Department of Medicine at Aga Khan University (AKU), Pakistan, stressed during a recent forum on infectious diseases in Vietnam that, “…at the current rate, most countries in the Asia Pacific will not meet the elimination target by 2030”. Despite progress in diagnosis and the drop in prices of testing and treatment, there is still a critical gap in coverage, said Hamid, whose research focuses on hepatitis. Far too few receive treatment and for those who do, it often comes too late, he explained.