Urgent call from experts: Declare hepatitis C a public health emergency

Treatment of hepatitis is still unresolved in a large number of countries in the world, especially the Asia Pacific region. The obstacles still revolve around funding sources, access to technology, and public awareness regarding early detection, vaccination and treatment. Experts called on the governments of countries with a high prevalence of Hepatitis C to declare it a public emergency to meet the goals set by international bodies to eliminate viral hepatitis by 2030. “At the current rate that countries are going, most countries in the Asia Pacific will not meet the target of 2030,” said Dr. Saeed Hamid, Professor of Medicine at Aga Khan University in Pakistan, during the Diagnostics Media and Policy Forum as part of the APAC-IRIDS 2024. “We need to declare an emergency in all of these high-burden countries,” he added.