World Hepatitis Summit 2024 was hosted in Lisbon, Portugal on 9-11 April as an opportunity to drive action to improve the lives of the more than 350 million people globally that are living with viral hepatitis – and save the lives of over a million people who die every year from hepatitis related liver cancer and disease.
The meeting gathered community organizations, policy makers, governments, advocates, medical professionals, the private sector and donors for panel discussions, interactive sessions and knowledge-sharing among experts in the field and real-life voices.
The global community shared and learnеd about the innovative work being done to increase access to testing, vaccination, and treatment services, tackle stigma and discrimination, advocate and campaign for funding, with an aim for viral hepatitis elimination by 2030.
The World Health Organization presented its latest Global Hepatitis Report, highlighting the burden of hepatitis in 187 countries which shows that more than 300 million people are living with hepatitis B and C. Hepatitis is now the second leading infectious cause of death globally – with 1.3 million deaths per year. The global response is off-track towards 2030 goals to eliminate hepatitis. Hence the time to act is now with just six years left to meet our target. The report recommends 10 public health actions to eliminate viral hepatitis based on the Global Health Sector Strategies on, respectively, HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections 2022-2030. Read here >>
LPI board member and President of World Hepatitis Alliance Rachel Halford: “We have the tools, data, and passion to eliminate viral hepatitis but we need to work together to make it a reality. We must take the energy and lessons from the Summit to drive action in our communities to prevent more lives being lost to viral hepatitis!”