Progress on global hepatitis elimination targets

In 2016, the World Health Assembly adopted a Global Health Sector Strategy on viral hepatitis, with targets set for the years 2020 and 2030 to achieve hepatitis elimination. The main target of hepatitis elimination strategy is to reduce the incidence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) by 90% and mortality by 65% in 2030. In last 5 years, the number of people receiving HCV treatment has increased from 1 million to 9.4 million; however, this number is far from the 2030 target of 40 million people receiving HCV treatment. HBV and HCV incidence rates are down from 1.4 million to 1.1 million annual deaths but this is far from the 2030 target of < 0.5 million deaths. The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has severely affected the efforts in the fight against hepatitis. No major donor has committed to investing in the fight against hepatitis. Time is running out. There is a need to speed up efforts in the fight against hepatitis to achieve hepatitis elimination by 2030.