The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released Progress Toward Viral Hepatitis Elimination in the United States, an inaugural report highlighting the nation’s progress toward reducing the burden of hepatitis A virus (HAV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections. The report provides information on progress in the implementation of recommended interventions and the impact these interventions are having on prevention of viral hepatitis transmission, disease, and associated mortality.
The report reflects progress toward accomplishing the goals outlined in the 2017-2020 HHS National Viral Hepatitis Action Plan and the Division of Viral Hepatitis Strategic Plan, 2016-2020, and suggests specific strategies for overcoming existing challenges to eliminating viral hepatitis. The report also complements a March 2017 report released by the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine titled A National Strategy for the Elimination of Hepatitis B and C, which highlights the actions necessary to eliminate hepatitis B and hepatitis C as public health threats in the United States by 2030.
Given a multitude of effective interventions, there is growing consensus that viral hepatitis can be eliminated as a public health threat in the United States, and while we have made some progress as a nation at reducing some of the burden of viral hepatitis, much work remains.
