[Comment] Progress and prospects in viral hepatitis elimination

Abstract

In 2016, the World Health Assembly formally recognised viral hepatitis as a global health concern and adopted the global health sector strategy on viral hepatitis.1 Targets for eliminating viral hepatitis were ambitious: a 90% reduction in the incidence of chronic hepatitis infection (95% for hepatitis B virus [HBV] and 80% for hepatitis C virus [HCV]) and a 65% reduction in mortality compared with the 2015 baseline measure.1 And although viral hepatitis remains a global health problem, the past decade has seen substantial progress in diagnostics, therapeutics, models of care delivery, and health-care policy.