Every year on July 28th, HepVu joins international viral hepatitis organizations in recognizing World Hepatitis Day. This awareness day serves as an opportunity to highlight the continued global burden of viral hepatitis despite the options that exist for vaccination, testing, and care.
This year viral hepatitis stakeholders recognize the theme of “I can’t wait” for the international observance. Every 30 seconds, someone dies from a hepatitis-related illness. Internationally, actions to eliminate viral hepatitis and care for affected communities must be taken with immediacy and intention.
Many people living with viral hepatitis are not able to access effective medical care and options that are critical to preventing and caring for their infections due to financial barriers, social stigma, political bureaucracy, or geographic service deserts. These obstacles significantly hinder the ability for the world to eliminate viral hepatitis as many countries pledged to do by 2030.
In the United States, new Hepatitis C infections are highly linked to the ongoing opioid crisis. New Data published in Clinical Infectious Diseases suggest the number of people who inject drugs (PWID) in the United States has grown substantially during the past decade, from 774,434 in 2011 to over 3.7 million in 2018. This World Hepatitis Day, HepVu explores the relationship between injection drug use and viral hepatitis through interviews with top viral hepatitis experts and is releasing new infographics highlighting the growing PWID population.
To learn more about elimination of viral hepatitis, explore HepVu’s resources:
- Visualize the Hepatitis C epidemic stratified by age, sex, and race on HepVu’s interactive maps.
- Find available viral hepatitis testing and care services near you with HepVu’s service locators.
- Read expert-led Q&As on the importance of viral hepatitis elimination:
- Share our infographics with your networks to raise awareness.
