World Hepatitis Awareness Day

July 28th is World Hepatitis Awareness Day.

Viral hepatitis – a group of infectious diseases known as hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E – affects millions of people worldwide, causing acute and chronic liver disease and killing close to 1.4 million people every year. Hepatitis remains largely ignored or unknown. In April this year, World Health Organization (WHO) issued new recommendations on treatment of hepatitis C. In May, World Health Assembly delegates from 194 Member States adopted a resolution to improve prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of viral hepatitis.

The date of July 28th was chosen for World Hepatitis Day in honor of the birthday of Nobel Laureate Professor Baruch Samuel Blumberg, who discovered the hepatitis B virus.

On World Hepatitis Day, 28 July 2014, WHO and partners urge policy-makers, health workers and the public to "think again" about this silent killer.

World Hepatitis Day provides an opportunity to focus on specific actions, such as:

• strengthening prevention, screening and control of viral hepatitis and its related diseases;
• increasing hepatitis B vaccine coverage and integration of the vaccine into national immunization programmes;
• coordinating a global response to viral hepatitis.

Posted by Tim Sandle