WHO Warns Poor Access to Hepatitis Diagnosis and Treatment Is Driving Dangerous Surge in Africa

The core message of the article is stark: hepatitis in Africa is not surging because the disease is uncontrollable, but because access to basic services is still far too limited. WHO’s latest global hepatitis reports show that viral hepatitis B and C, which cause about 95% of hepatitis‑related deaths worldwide, claimed roughly 1.34 million lives in 2024 alone, with a large share of these deaths concentrated in regions like Africa and the Western Pacific. Many of these fatalities were preventable, because vaccines, diagnostic tests and effective medicines already exist; what is missing is access, especially for poor and rural communities.

Africa carries a particularly heavy burden. Updated WHO estimates indicate that 287 million people were living with chronic hepatitis B or C in 2024, and the African Region accounted for 68% of new hepatitis B infections that year. Yet only about 17% of newborns in the region received the critical hepatitis B birth‑dose vaccine, which can protect more than 95% of vaccinated babies against both acute and chronic infection. This mismatch—high transmission, low early protection—is a key reason the virus continues to spread from mother to child and in early childhood, locking millions into chronic infection and future liver disease.

Diagnosis is another major weak point. WHO’s analyses emphasise that many people living with hepatitis B or C in low‑ and middle‑income countries remain undiagnosed because testing is scarce, expensive, or not integrated into routine primary care. In the African Region, molecular and serologic diagnostic capacity is still limited, especially outside major cities, which makes it hard to accurately identify infections, monitor treatment and track the epidemic. Without widespread, affordable testing, most people only discover they have hepatitis when they develop serious complications like liver cirrhosis or liver cancer,often too late for the most effective interventions.

Treatment access is equally constrained. Of the estimated 240 million people living with chronic hepatitis B in 2024, fewer than 5% were receiving antiviral therapy, even though long‑term treatment can significantly reduce the risk of severe liver disease. For hepatitis C, only about 20% of patients worldwide have been treated since highly effective 8–12‑week direct‑acting antiviral regimens,curing more than 95% of infections—became available in 2015. In Africa, barriers include weak health systems, limited drug procurement, low awareness among both clinicians and patients, and out‑of‑pocket costs that put medicines beyond the reach of many households.

The article also notes that specific countries bear a disproportionate share of hepatitis‑related deaths. Ten nations,including Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, South Africa and several in Asia,accounted for roughly 69% of global hepatitis B deaths in 2024. This concentration underscores how crucial it is for high‑burden countries in Africa to scale up birth‑dose vaccination, routine childhood immunisation against hepatitis B, prevention of mother‑to‑child transmission, and adult treatment programs.

WHO’s 2026 global hepatitis report frames the situation as both a warning and an opportunity. On one hand, progress is real: more countries now have national hepatitis strategies, and some have dramatically reduced new infections and deaths through strong vaccination and treatment campaigns. On the other hand, current rates of improvement are still too slow to reach the 2030 elimination targets, especially in regions where poor access keeps services out of reach for those most at risk. Stigma, underfunded primary care, and inequitable distribution of health products all contribute to people staying undiagnosed and untreated.

The article relays WHO’s call for urgent actions, particularly in Africa. Priority steps include: scaling up treatment for chronic hepatitis B in high‑burden countries; expanding access to hepatitis C curative therapy; improving coverage of the hepatitis B birth‑dose and routine childhood vaccination; and strengthening measures to prevent mother‑to‑child transmission, such as antiviral prophylaxis in pregnant women with high viral loads. WHO also stresses the need to integrate hepatitis services into primary care, improve injection safety in health facilities, and expand harm‑reduction services for people who inject drugs, who account for about 44% of new hepatitis C infections globally.

Ultimately, the ThisDay piece underscores a central paradox: the world already has powerful tools to prevent and treat hepatitis, but in much of Africa they remain locked behind barriers of cost, distance, weak systems and lack of political priority. Unless diagnosis and treatment are rapidly scaled up and made truly accessible, the continent will continue to face a rising tide of avoidable infections, liver disease and deaths—even as science offers solutions capable of turning hepatitis into a largely controlled, rather than surging, public‑health threat.