Viral hepatitis, principally due to chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) and chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV), claimed 1.4 million lives worldwide in 2013,1 a rising toll that is now actually greater than that of mortality from HIV. Of the annual deaths caused by viral hepatitis, almost half (686,000) are attributable to HBV.1
The toll of viral hepatitis is now greater than that of mortality from HIV.
Although HBV vaccination rates for the childhood routine hepatitis B vaccine series were 82% globally in 2014,2 coverage rates for the hepatitis B birth dose—to optimally prevent mother-to-child (perinatal) transmission—lag behind. Furthermore, global disability-adjusted life years lost due to HBV-associated liver cancer have continued to rise by 4.8% since 2005.3 This is because the vast majority of complications from HBV occur among individuals older than 40 who were infected in the perinatal period or as young children. Indeed, an estimated 240 million individuals are already chronically infected,4 of whom 20% to 30% will eventually develop cirrhosis and/or liver cancer in the absence of treatment.5
Although chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection is usually not curable, thankfully certain antiviral drugs are highly effective …