Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening,
Excellencies, programme managers and staff of Ministries of Health from across the globe, community, civil society, UN, and other development partners; distinguished experts, and colleagues,
Warm greetings to everyone in Lisbon.
I am delighted to speak at the closing ceremony of this World Hepatitis Summit 2024, the first to be organized after the COVID-19 pandemic. I hope you have had rich discussions, exchange and co-creation of ideas and innovations during the last several days. This is an opportune time to forge stronger bonds with one another as we work together to rebuild towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals 2030.
I am very pleased to have the next World Hepatitis Summit 2026 to be co-hosted and located in Thailand. This is wonderful news indeed, and a pertinent one for Asia where 60% of the total global population resides.
This year, WHO released new estimates of the burden and impact of viral hepatitis B and C to health.
Globally, 302 million people are living with hepatitis B and C. Half of them is in the prime of their lives, 30-54 years old, but most of them are unaware of their status of infection. 12% are children.
With around a quarter of the total burden the South-east Asia region bears a heavy burden of viral hepatitis B and C infection. The numbers of people having themselves tested for hepatitis B and C are low, with only 1 in 5 individuals knowing their hepatitis C status and 1 in 7 having reached health services and gotten themselves treated and cured. Among people living with chronic hepatitis B infection, even less of them have been tested and reached treatment services, risking the worsening of liver disease and development of liver cancer.
1 in 5 people newly infected with hepatitis B or C reside in the South-east Asia region. Similarly, 20% of all deaths are in this region. There are still issues with assuring safe medical injections in health care settings, and people who inject drugs are disproportionately affected with hepatitis C and HIV-HCV coinfection, amongst other populations with higher risk of infection.
Hepatitis B and C are the main causes of liver cirrhosis and cancer. Earlier testing and treatment of hepatitis will prevent progression of disease and reduce the risk of liver cancer. Highly effective medicines are as low as US$ 2.8 per bottle for hepatitis B treatment, and US$ 30 for hepatitis C course of cure. But many countries continue to pay very high prices for these medicines. Access to testing and drugs remains variable.
However, I am optimistic. We have wins too.
Triple elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B is one of the greatest paradigm shift in public health. Antiretroviral drugs and syphilis treatment are effective to prevent vertical transmission to the infant. Universal free childhood immunization including the hepatitis B timely birth-dose and completion of at least 3 doses of hepatitis B vaccines is the mainstay of preventing new infections, complemented with additional interventions such as use of antiviral drugs for hepatitis B infected women and immunoglobulin prophylaxis among their infants.
In the South-east Asia Region, Thailand in 2016, was the first country in Asia that was validated to have achieved elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and Syphilis, followed by Maldives and Sri Lanka in 2019. Six countries in the Region – Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Thailand, were verified to have achieved the hepatitis B control goal of less than 1% seroprevalence among children over 5 years of age in 2019, and Maldives and Sri Lanka were verified just in January 2024. We are now working on moving beyond control to hepatitis B elimination of mother to child transmission, effectively, the Triple Elimination.
Our collective aim is clear.
We need to chart the path towards successfully achieving the ambitious goals of getting to hepatitis elimination. And to get there, we must ensure all are onboard. We must leverage strengths, integrate services, optimize our resources across all sectors – which will help even-out the inequalities of access to hepatitis prevention, testing and treatment, and accelerate progress towards 2030.
We must respond more effectively to the needs of communities, and work on breaking stigma and discrimination towards individuals living with hepatitis B and C.
We have the vision, menu of effective tools, the right partners here today, and together we can and must save lives, and prevent a future generation from new infections, cancer, and death.
I call on everyone to stand together hand- in-hand to work towards elimination of hepatitis. We must take this opportunity today, to build forward and take the bold steps to renew and redesign responses to get to 2030.
I hope to see and welcome you in the World Hepatitis Summit Bangkok 2026.
Thank you.