Ann Infect Dis Epidemiol | Volume 4, Issue 3 | Review Article | Open Access
Hubert E Blum*
Department of Medicine, University Hospital Freiburg, Germany
*Correspondance to: Hubert E Blum
Fulltext PDFGlobally, chronic viral hepatitis is caused in the majority of cases by the Hepatitis B Virus (HBV), its associated defective Hepatitis Delta Virus (HDV) and the Hepatitis C Virus (HCV). Their structure and genetic organization as well as their global burden are known in great detail and have been successfully translated into important clinical applications, such as their sensitive and specific diagnosis, therapy and prevention of the associated liver diseases, including cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. In 2015, worldwide about 260 million individuals were infected with HBV and about 70 million by HCV. These infections are a leading cause of death with an estimated 1.34 million deaths per year or nearly 4,000 per day, similar to other infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. While it is now possible to prevent hepatitis B and hepatitis D by vaccination against HBV and to cure hepatitis C by novel therapies with direct acting antiviral agents, the World Health Organization (WHO) goals of elimination of these infections by 2030 still pose a major challenge to the medical community as well as to the health care authorities and require their commitment to coordinated global interventions.
Hepatitis B; Hepatitis D; Hepatitis C; Liver cirrhosis; Liver failure; Hepatocellular carcinoma; Preventive measures; Vaccination; Antiviral therapy
Blum HE. Global Elimination of Chronic Viral Hepatitis. Ann Infect Dis Epidemiol. 2019; 4(3): 1046.