World Hepatitis Day takes place every year on 28 July, with the aim of bringing the world together under one single theme in order to raise awareness of viral hepatitis and the impact it has worldwide. The theme for World Hepatitis Day 2018 is “Eliminate Hepatitis”.
Hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus are the leading cause of liver cancer in the world, yet more than 80% of those affected with viral hepatitis are unaware of their status. Viral hepatitis does not restrict itself to one specific region or people, but is found worldwide making it a global epidemic.
There are many effective vaccines and treatments available for hepatitis B and C and eliminating viral hepatitis is highly achievable. According to the World Health Organisation’s Global Strategy of Viral Hepatitis, the goal is to do so by 2030.
The question is, how? There are 325 million people that are living with viral hepatitis in the world, yet up to 290 million of these are unaware that they have it. In recognition of this, The World Hepatitis Alliance are launching a campaign in association with World Hepatitis Day, which aims to focus on ‘finding the missing millions’. The three-year awareness campaign aims to educate, influence national screening policies and encourage more people to get tested with the hope of finding the missing millions and reducing further spread of the virus. To accompany the campaign, a white paper is being written to provide stakeholders with information on how to reach the goal.
What is hepatitis?
Hepatitis refers to an inflammatory condition of the liver. It’s commonly caused by a viral infection, but there are other possible causes of hepatitis. These include auto immune hepatitis and hepatitis that occurs as a secondary result of medications, drugs, toxins, and alcohol. Auto immune hepatitis is a disease that occurs when your body makes antibodies against your liver tissue.
Your liver is located in the right upper area of your abdomen. It performs many critical functions that affect metabolism throughout your body, including:
bile production, which is essential to digestion filtering of toxins from your body excretion of bilirubin (a product of broken-down red blood cells), cholesterol, hormones, and drugsbreakdown of carbohydrates, fats, and proteinsactivation of enzymes, which are specialized proteins essential to body functionsstorage of glycogen (a form of sugar), minerals, and vitamins (A, D, E, and K)synthesis of blood proteins, such as albuminsynthesis of clotting factors
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 4.4 million people are currently living with chronic hepatitis B and C. Many more people don’t even know that they have hepatitis.
Treatment options vary depending on which type of hepatitis you have. You can prevent some forms of hepatitis through immunizations and lifestyle precautions.
