WHO announces hepatitis D as carcinogenic, urges action

As we mark World Hepatitis Day, WHO has announced Hepatitis D as carcinogenic and calls on governments and partners to urgently accelerate efforts to eliminate viral hepatitis as a public health threat and reduce liver cancer deaths.

Viral hepatitis—types A, B, C, D, and E—are major causes of acute liver infection. Among these, only hepatitis B, C, and D can lead to chronic infections that significantly increase the risk of cirrhosis, liver failure, or liver cancer.

WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a release, said, “Every 30 seconds, someone dies from a hepatitis-related severe liver disease or liver cancer. Yet we have the tools to stop hepatitis.”

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The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) recently classified hepatitis D as carcinogenic to humans, just like hepatitis B and C. Hepatitis D, which only affects individuals infected with hepatitis B, is associated with a two- to six-fold higher risk of liver cancer compared to hepatitis B alone.

This reclassification marks a critical step in global efforts to raise awareness, improve screening, and expand access to new treatments for hepatitis D.

In a remark by the incoming Director of Science for Health at the WHO, Dr Meg Doherty said, “WHO has published guidelines on testing and diagnosis of Hepatitis B and D in 2024 and is actively following the clinical outcomes from innovative treatments for Hepatitis D.”

Treatment with oral medicine can cure hepatitis C within 2 to 3 months and effectively suppresses hepatitis B with lifelong therapy. Treatment options for hepatitis D are evolving.

However, the full benefit of reducing liver cirrhosis and cancer deaths can only be realised through urgent action to scale up and integrate hepatitis services—including vaccination, testing, harm reduction, and treatment—into national health systems.

However, the 2024 Global Hepatitis Report indicated that testing and treatment coverage remain critically low; only 13 per cent of people with hepatitis B and 36 per cent with hepatitis C had been diagnosed by 2022.

Treatment rates were even lower – 3 per cent for hepatitis B and 20 per cent for hepatitis C – well below the 2025 targets of 60 per cent diagnosed and 50% treated, while integration of hepatitis services remains uneven.

Eight countries have incorporated hepatitis services into primary health care, 128 into HIV programmes, and just 27 have integrated hepatitis C services into harm reduction centres.

Achieving WHO’s 2030 targets could save 2.8 million lives and prevent 9.8 million new infections. With declining donor support, countries must prioritise domestic investment, integrated services, better data, affordable medicines, and ending stigma.

This year’s campaign, “Hepatitis: Let’s break it down,” demands action to confront the rising toll of liver cancer linked to chronic hepatitis infections. It also calls for decisive steps to dismantle persistent barriers—from stigma to funding gaps—that continue to slow progress in prevention, testing, and treatment.