By; AMOS TAUNA, Kaduna
The World Health Organization (WHO), has said that about 3,500 people die from hepatitis virus every day, raising alarm that the global toll is rising.
WHO warned today, calling for swift action to fight the second-largest infectious killer every day and the riding global toll.
A new data from 187 countries indicates that the number of deaths from viral hepatitis rose to 1.3 million in 2022 from 1.1 million in 2019, according to a WHO report released to coincide with the World Hepatitis Summit in Portugal this week.
Meg Doherty, head of the WHO’s global HIV, hepatitis and sexually-transmitted infection programmes, in a press conference, noted that the situation is alarming.
The report explained, “there are 3,500 deaths per day worldwide from hepatitis infections — 83 per cent from hepatitis B, 17 per cent from hepatitis C.”
It stated that there are effective and cheap generic drugs which can treat these viruses, saying that only three per cent of those with chronic hep B received antiviral treatment by the end of 2023.
The report said for Hepatitis C, 20 per cent or 12.5 million people had been treated, explaining that the results fall well below the global targets to treat 80 per cent of all people living with chronic hep B and C by 2030.
He explained that the overall rate of hepatitis infections did fall slightly.
