WHO Releases Global Hepatitis Elimination Handbook to Accelerate Worldwide Action
Oluwatobi Adu 
ABUJA, Nigeria – The World Health Organization (WHO) unveils its first comprehensive implementation handbook aimed at helping countries accelerate efforts to eliminate viral hepatitis, a disease that continues to kill more than one million people worldwide each year.
The handbook, released Tuesday, consolidates more than a decade of WHO evidence-based recommendations into a single operational guide for governments, programme managers, clinicians and development partners working to control hepatitis.
WHO says the document is designed to strengthen prevention, testing, treatment and monitoring programmes through a coordinated public-health approach.
Viral hepatitis remains a major global health challenge. According to WHO data, about 254 million people live with hepatitis B while nearly 50 million live with hepatitis C globally. In 2022 alone, hepatitis-related cirrhosis and liver cancer caused roughly 1.3 million deaths, equivalent to more than 3,500 deaths every day.
Health authorities warn that the deaths are largely preventable. Effective vaccines exist for hepatitis B, while hepatitis C can be cured with antiviral treatment. Yet many countries still struggle to scale up testing, treatment and surveillance systems.
WHO says the new handbook provides practical strategies for implementing these interventions more effectively within national health systems, particularly through strengthened primary health care services.
Director of the WHO Department for HIV, Tuberculosis, Hepatitis and Sexually Transmitted Infections, Dr Tereza Kasaeva, says the handbook aims to move countries from policy commitments to concrete results.
“With this first-of-its-kind handbook, WHO is supporting countries to move from evidence-based recommendations to concrete action, reducing new hepatitis infections and combating rising mortality,” Kasaeva says.
She adds that the guidance offers clear implementation pathways to expand equitable, person-centred hepatitis services at all levels of health systems.
About the Author
Hussaini Ibrahim 
Edino Chubiyo Cornelius 
Korede Abdullah 
Oluwafunbi Bello