EASL marks World Hepatitis Day 2021, renewing commitment to eliminating hepatitis

During International Liver Congress™ 2021, at a multi-stakeholder symposium (EASL, with CDC, ECDC, and WHO), the Interim guidance for country validation of viral hepatitis C elimination was released by the World Health Organization.

The efforts to reach the WHO goal of eliminating viral hepatitis throughout Europe have been compromised by the COVID-19 crisis. EASL is strongly engaged with the elimination efforts and is conscious that there is a need to assess the impact of the crisis and to take measures accordingly.  In collaboration with European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), EASL is currently running a survey on the impact of COVID-19 on viral hepatitis elimination, comparing the treatment of patients with viral hepatitis in 2019 vs 2020.

EASL is holding its first event dedicated to this topic, Viral Hepatitis Elimination 2022, taking place 24–25 February 2022, in Brussels, Belgium. We aim to convene all parties affected, including patients, to explore science, public health, and policy to advance the fight against viral hepatitis.

Save the date of the event: 24–25 February 2022 

EASL is proud to be a strategic partner in the efforts of the Coalition for Global Hepatitis Elimination (CGHE) to develop national hepatitis elimination profiles for countries in Europe and beyond. These national profiles are like taking the temperature of a given country, providing an overview of its status, progress towards elimination, and steps needed to progress, listing of key stakeholders, identifying the most important initiatives and policy steps required.  EASL will contribute expertise for the development of the profiles and will disseminate information about them to the global hepatology community.

To overcome the barriers to achieving viral hepatitis elimination, we must improve people’s access to screening, treatment, and care. To this end, all actors involved, including patient organisations, must work together and deliver care at the community level. In 2019, the major hepatology societies agreed that there is an urgent need to simplify viral hepatitis testing and linkage to care and today this remains a priority. Only by decentralising viral hepatitis services to local level care and task-sharing care with primary care clinicians and other health care practitioners can we achieve our goal

said Prof. Maria Buti, Professor of Medicine at the Internal Medicine and Hepatology Department, Hospital General Universitari Valle Hebron, Barcelona, and EASL’s EU Policy Councillor, and Chair of EASL’s Policy and Public Health Committee.

The EASL International Liver Foundation (EILF) continues to champion the micro-elimination approach as an integral part of every country’s efforts to eliminate hepatitis C as a public health threat by 2030, as set out by WHO. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused setbacks, so we will need to redouble our efforts in pursuit of the 2030 goals. EILF remains a staunch ally to our partners around the world, aiming to ensure viral hepatitis receives the attention it deserves. We confirm our ongoing support of elimination efforts taking place globally,

said Prof. Jeff Lazarus, EASL Policy and Public Health Committee Member, and Vice-Chair of the EASL International Liver Foundation.

• “Global burden of acute viral hepatitis and its association with socioeconomic development status, 1990–2019” published open access 4 May 2021, by Dan-Yi Zeng, et al.
• “Impact of direct-acting antivirals for HCV on mortality in a large population-based cohort study” published 4 June 2021, by Naveed Z. Janjua, et al.