World Hepatitis Day

World Hepatitis Day 2021

Hepatitis Can’t Wait

28 July is World Hepatitis Day. This year, the global and Australian national message is “Hepatitis can’t wait”. COVID-19 has resulted in a common outcome in this aspect of healthcare—people have been putting off seeing their healthcare providers. Unfortunately, there can be dire consequences for some conditions if you wait. Hepatitis is one of those. Worldwide, someone dies from hepatitis-related illness every 30 seconds. In Australia, hepatitis is a leading cause of liver cancer and liver cancer is the fastest growing cause of cancer deaths. Over a quarter of a million people in Australia are living with hepatitis B and over a third of them don’t know that they have it. More worrying is the fact that only one in five of these people are in medical care. The expert advice is for all people with

worldhepatitisday.org.au

chronic hepatitis B to receive regular monitoring and timely treatment as needed. We are nowhere near the conservative national target to have half of people with chronic hepatitis B to be in medical care by the end of next year. Not everyone with chronic hepatitis B needs to be on treatment, but experts estimate that about a quarter will need to be on antiviral therapy to minimize adverse outcomes. Left unmanaged and untreated, hepatitis B can lead to liver failure or liver cancer. In 2018, there were more than 400 hepatitis B-related deaths in Australia. While the number of Australians living with hepatitis C has reduced because of highly effective new treatments, there are still around 130,000 people with chronic hepatitis C— the leading cause for liver transplants in Australia. One in five of these people don’t know they have hepatitis C, or that a simple course of tablets for eight or twelve weeks could rid them of the virus damaging their liver. Australia is one of the countries on track to eliminate hepatitis C by 2030 – a World Health Organization target but the number of people starting hepatitis C treatment has been falling after the initial surge when the new drugs became publicly available in 2016. Furthermore, the Doherty Institute WHO Collaborating Centre for Viral Hepatitis reported a 19% drop in hepatitis testing in 2020, compared to the same time in 2019. This drop in diagnosis and resulting management will have flow-on effects on progress towards achieving the WHO target. In SA, there are over 8,000 people with chronic hepatitis C and 14,000 with chronic hepatitis B. While treatment uptake for hepatitis C has been above the national average in SA, more than half of South Australians with hepatitis C are still unnecessarily living with a disease that can be cured in 8 or 12 weeks. With hepatitis B, SA’s progress is below national average, with only 16% of people with chronic hepatitis B receiving medical care and 5% on treatment—a long way off from the national targets of 50% and 20% respectively. Hepatitis B and hepatitis C are infectious diseases with possible serious consequences for those with these chronic conditions, but they are treatable and preventable. With an effective vaccine for hepatitis B and a cure for hepatitis C, both viruses can be eliminated. The challenge is to find those who are not diagnosed, or not in medical care and offer appropriate pathways for them to manage their condition. Hepatitis can’t wait. v

Sources

• worldhepatitisday.org.au • hepatitisaustralia.com/hepatitis-statistics • National Surveillance for Hepatitis B Indicators – Measuring the progress towards the targets of the National

Hepatitis B Strategy – Annual Report 2017, WHO Collaborating Centre for Viral Hepatitis, Doherty Institute. • public.tableau.com/app/profile/nationalhepmapping/viz/HepatitisBMappingPortal2018_15939357983460/State • public.tableau.com/app/profile/nationalhepmapping/viz/HepatitisCMappingPortal2019_15939359599820/State

For more information on World Hepatitis Day 2021, visit worldhepatitisday.org for global campaign information and hepatitisaustralia.com/world-hepatitis-day for the national campaign.