WHO Global hepatitis report 2026
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WHO Global hepatitis report 2026

WHO Global hepatitis report 2026

Viral hepatitis is one of the world’s most important public health challenges. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) continue to cause chronic infection in hundreds of millions of people, leading to cirrhosis, liver cancer and over 1 million premature deaths each year, even though both infections are preventable and treatable. Together, HBV and HCV account for over 95% of global mortality caused by viral hepatitis, with hepatitis A virus (HAV), hepatitis D virus (HDV) and hepatitis E virus (HEV) accounting for the remainder.

People can be infected with viral hepatitis through exposure to infected blood (HBV, HCV and HDV) and other bodily fluids (HBV and HDV), contaminated water (HAV and HEV) and contaminated food (HAV). In highly endemic areas, most chronic HBV infections occur in children aged under 5 years, either through mother-to-child transmission at birth or horizontal transmission through person- to-person contact in the presence of open cuts and sores. The most common routes of HCV transmission are unsafe injections and medical procedures, unscreened blood transfusions, and sharing of needles and syringes among people who inject drugs. All forms of viral hepatitis infection can cause acute liver inflammation; however, HBV, HCV and HDV can progress to chronic infection, with those infected with HBV in infancy or early childhood (aged <5 years) being at the highest risk (about 95%).

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