World Hepatitis Day 2020

Did you know that nearly 290 million people globally are living with viral hepatitis but are unaware of this fact? These are the ‘missing’ links and people who continue to suffer and not being able to diagnose them will cause millions more to suffer in the future. In order to tackle viral hepatitis at its roots, the theme for this year’s World Hepatitis Day on 29th July 2020 is “Find the Missing Millions”.

Nearly 325 million people are affected by viral hepatitis forms hepatitis B and C each year. About 1.4 million people die due to one or the other form of viral hepatitis each year. When hepatitis is preventable and treatable, why should people live and suffer from this disease? Some viral hepatitis like hepatitis C are completely curable, then why are millions still living with this condition?

There is a clear lack of preventing measures, awareness, testing and treatment options in many parts of the world. All of these form a vicious cycle that leads to 80% of the people suffering from viral hepatitis to continue doing so. Continuing from last year’s theme of World Hepatitis Day i.e Investing in eliminating hepatitis, this year’s theme is encouraging people to test as much as possible to find the missing millions and provide them with appropriate treatment.