Today marks the fifth official World Hepatitis Day where members of the public and the hepatitis community provide a voice for the 4000 lives lost every day

World Health Organization (WHO) and World Hepatitis Alliance join forces to bring together WHO Member State health ministers, policy makers, patient representatives and civil society for the first-ever World Hepatitis Summit

Inaugural Summit hosted in Glasgow, 2-4 September builds on WHO resolution in tackling the severity of the global hepatitis problem

Global hepatitis elimination strategy is key priority during Summit

The World Hepatitis Alliance, and its supporters today asks the public, the hepatitis community and governments to raise awareness of the 4000 people who die from viral hepatitis every day. Causing significantly more deaths than HIV/AIDS, some 1.4 million people a year could be saved if the elimination of viral hepatitis were to become a reality.

Speaking on the fifth official World Hepatitis Day, World Hepatitis Alliance President, Charles Gore, commented: “The global burden of viral hepatitis can be overcome only when the world is united in action. This is why we have partnered with WHO and the Scottish Government to bring together WHO Member State health ministers and policy-makers, patient representatives, civil society, global funders and patients to advance the global hepatitis agenda.”

Viral hepatitis is the seventh leading cause of death worldwide and yet there has been a remarkable lack of global awareness and action to combat the disease. The World Hepatitis Summit is being held in order to upscale the world’s response to hepatitis and to address the need for a global forum to examine public health approaches to the disease.

Top of the agenda for the inaugural Summit is the development of the global hepatitis elimination strategy. Following the WHA67.R6 resolution adopted at the 67th World Health Assembly in 2014, WHO Member States have committed to developing and implementing national viral hepatitis strategies and called on WHO to develop a global strategy. Currently in review, the ‘Sector Strategy on Viral Hepatitis, 2016–2021’ will be finalised for consideration by the 69th World Health Assembly in 2016.

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