According to the latest report, hepatitis-related illnesses caused approximately 1.34 million deaths in 2024, while new infections continue at an estimated 1.8 million annually—equivalent to more than 4,900 new cases every day.
World Health Organization
Hepatitis B is a viral infection that attacks the liver and spreads through infected body fluids or from mother to child. It can become chronic and significantly increase the risk of liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. Hepatitis C, another serious liver infection, spreads primarily through infected blood, often linked to unsafe injections, needle sharing, or unscreened blood transfusions.
Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C
The WHO’s 2026 Global Hepatitis Report shows notable progress since 2015, including a 32% reduction in new hepatitis B infections and a 12% decline in hepatitis C-related deaths. Hepatitis B prevalence among children under five has fallen to 0.6%, with 85 countries already meeting or exceeding the 2030 global targets. However, the report stresses that this progress remains insufficient to achieve full elimination within the next decade.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus emphasized that elimination is achievable but requires significantly accelerated global action. He noted that millions of people remain undiagnosed and untreated due to stigma, weak health systems, and unequal access to healthcare, despite the availability of effective preventive and treatment tools.
The report estimates that around 287 million people were living with chronic hepatitis B or C in 2024. The African region accounted for the majority of new hepatitis B infections, while newborn vaccination coverage remains critically low in several areas. Hepatitis C transmission continues to be driven significantly by unsafe injection practices, particularly among people who inject drugs.
Treatment coverage remains alarmingly low. Fewer than 5% of people with hepatitis B are receiving care, while only 20% of hepatitis C patients have been treated since curative therapies became available. This treatment gap continues to drive high mortality rates, with approximately 1.1 million deaths from hepatitis B and 240,000 deaths from hepatitis C recorded in 2024, largely due to liver-related complications.
The burden of hepatitis-related deaths is heavily concentrated in a limited number of countries across Asia and Africa, although hepatitis C-related mortality is more widely distributed across the globe. This uneven impact underscores persistent gaps in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment access across regions.
The WHO report reiterates that proven tools already exist to eliminate hepatitis as a public health threat, including an effective hepatitis B vaccine, long-term antiviral therapies, and curative hepatitis C treatments with success rates exceeding 95%. However, access to these interventions remains uneven across populations and regions.
The report calls for urgent global action, including stronger political commitment, increased financing, expanded vaccination coverage, improved treatment access, integration of hepatitis services into primary healthcare systems, enhanced injection safety, and strengthened harm reduction services for high-risk populations.
Despite clear progress, the WHO concludes that only faster, coordinated, and sustained global intervention can ensure hepatitis is eliminated as a public health threat by 2030.
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