What to know
July 28 is World Hepatitis Day (WHD).
Why it's important
Viral hepatitis affects more than 300 million people worldwide and leads to more than 1 million deaths each year. Despite effective vaccines, prevention strategies, and medications, deaths from hepatitis are increasing globally.
CDC, the World Health Organization, and other organizations around the world recognize WHD by raising awareness about viral hepatitis, the burdens people with hepatitis face, ongoing work to combat viral hepatitis across the globe, and actions people can take to prevent future transmission.
Goals
CDC is working to eliminate viral hepatitis in the United States and around the world. CDC collaborates with international partners to help countries experiencing high rates of infection to prevent, control, and eliminate viral hepatitis.
Campaign origins
WHD is recognized annually on July 28, the birthday of Dr. Baruch Blumberg, who discovered the hepatitis B virus in 1967. Two years later, he developed the first hepatitis B vaccine. Dr. Blumberg won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1976.
What success looks like
CDC provides scientific and public health leadership to countries around the world in advancing efforts to eliminate viral hepatitis as a public health threat.
In 2015, CDC began partnering with the country of Georgia to launch the first Hepatitis C Elimination Program in the world. In 2021, Georgia achieved a 67% reduction in chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection compared to 2015.
In 2021, CDC released the Global Immunization Strategic Framework 2021–2030, which provides a roadmap to achieving progress toward a world where everyone is protected from vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs), such as hepatitis A and hepatitis B.
The goals of CDC's core immunization program are to:
- Prevent VPDs by strengthening immunization services.
- Detect VPDs by supporting and improving disease surveillance systems.
- Respond to and prepare for VPD outbreaks.
Two of these goals have cross-cutting capacities, which are to:
- Sustain immunization program capacities over time.
- Innovate to increase immunization program impact through research and evaluation.
CDC helps countries build capacity for surveillance, testing, care, and treatment and assists with development and implementation of national control and elimination programs. To learn more about what CDC is doing to prevent the primary source of chronic hepatitis B, see What CDC Is Doing — Global Hepatitis B Vaccination.
To learn more about how CDC is working globally to eliminate global death and disease caused by viral hepatitis, see CDC Collaborates Worldwide to Eliminate Viral Hepatitis.
Resources
World Health Organization
Check out the World Hepatitis Alliance's WHD website for customizable campaign resources in a variety of languages and ideas for ways you and your organization can get involved.
CDC
For people looking for general information on viral hepatitis, see:
To learn more about what CDC is doing to prevent chronic hepatitis B, see:
- About Global Hepatitis B Vaccination
- Why CDC Is Working to Prevent Hepatitis B Globally
- What CDC Is Doing on Global Hepatitis B Vaccination
- Fast Facts: Global Hepatitis B Vaccination