Breaking it Down: Eliminating the Impact of Viral Hepatitis Starts with Recognizing Liver Health as a Global Priority

We can end viral hepatitis — but only if we stop sidelining liver health from the global health agenda

Every year on World Hepatitis Day (28 July), we’re reminded of a sobering truth: we can end a preventable disease — but only if we stop sidelining liver health from the global health agenda. Despite progress in reducing new hepatitis infections overall, 6,000 people are newly infected with viral hepatitis each day and deaths from viral hepatitis are rising. It’s a paradox we can no longer afford to ignore.

Globally, we have what it takes to eliminate viral hepatitis. Novel testing tools, effective treatments, and lifesaving vaccines exist, but access depends heavily on where you live. In many low- and middle-income countries, these tools remain unavailable, unaffordable, or out of reach for those who need them most. That gap in access, combined with low public awareness, stigma, underfunded health systems, fragmented care, and political inertia, continues to cost lives. Even healthcare workers often lack the tools or training to recognize the signs of liver disease early. This year’s theme — “Let’s break it down” — is a call to dismantle those obstacles one by one.

Liver Health: The Bigger Picture We’re Missing

Liver cancer — often the result of undiagnosed viral hepatitis or advanced liver damage, including from MASLD/MASH (formerly known as NAFLD/NASH) — is on the rise. Knowing your status is the first step to stopping liver cancer. We must find the millions of people living with undiagnosed liver disease — both viral and metabolic — and embed liver health into local and global responses that are integrated, equitable, and preventative. Liver disease spans both infectious and noncommunicable causes — and our response must reflect that complexity.

If we continue treating liver diseases in silos, we risk missing the opportunity for a smarter, more sustainable response.

Shared Problems, Shared Solutions

Viral hepatitis and MASLD/MASH may have different origins, but they’re facing the same systemic challenges:

• Late diagnosis due to low awareness, low health literacy, and poor screening;
• Stigma, which is linked to a perceived difference or trait attributable to a behavior that another may deem unacceptable;
• Fragmented and complex health systems that fail to connect the dots between symptoms, risks, and care.

The solution? Integrated liver health approaches that place the person in the center. We need health systems that can screen for hepatitis and steatotic liver disease at the same time, offer clear patient education, and deliver care that doesn't stop at a diagnosis.

Integrated services mean fewer missed diagnoses, more efficient use of resources, and better long-term outcomes for patients.

This World Hepatitis Day, We Call on Leaders to Break the Silence on Liver Disease

From viral hepatitis to steatotic liver disease (SLD), chronic liver conditions are a growing public health challenge, yet liver health remains neglected.

Our call to action:

• Deliver on commitments to eliminate viral hepatitis by 2030 by expanding access to testing, treatment, and care — particularly in underserved communities;
• Invest in liver health as part of primary care and community-led health care systems
• Scale up HBV vaccination, including HBV birth dose vaccination, as liver cancer prevention;
• Recognise that liver health sits at the intersection of infectious disease and NCDs—and that an integrated approach strengthens both responses;
   

By making liver health a priority, we create the conditions needed to reach the WHO viral hepatitis elimination targets — protecting millions of lives and building stronger, more resilient health systems for all.