Geneva, Switzerland, Friday 21 May 2010: The European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) today reinforces its commitment to raising hepatitis on the European health agenda, as it endorses a call to action discussed at a high-level roundtable with Members of the European Parliament and welcomes the new WHO resolution on viral hepatitis.  

A call for Council recommendations presented at an event in Strasbourg to coincide with the 3rd World Hepatitis Day (WHD on Wednesday 19th May 2010), looks to the European Commission and Council members to offer policy solutions that will focus on screening programmes to address the issue of late diagnosis and wider access to care.

Mark Thursz, Vice-Secretary of EASL commented: ‘With the WHO officially recognising hepatitis as a global health issue and the existing European Parliament written declaration, we can hope to see concrete commitments and actions from the European Institutions and Member States to address hepatitis as an urgent public health issue. As liver specialists ,it is frustrating when we get to see hepatitis patients in late phases of their disease, when many of them have already developed complications of their infection, such as liver-cirrhosis and liver cancer.’

Hot on the heels of these European talks, the World Health Organization ratified a resolution on viral hepatitis at its 63rd World Health Assembly in Geneva. The resolution recognises hepatitis as a global issue and will help to generate funds to coordinate activities at a global level and help patient groups to discuss the issue of hepatitis as a priority with their domestic governments. It also introduces World Hepatitis Day in the official WHO calendar.

Professor Wedemeyer, Secretary-General of EASL, commented: ‘The WHO resolution is of major importance for many patients. Viral hepatitis was not listed as a major infectious disease together with HIV, TB and malaria. The WHO resolution has the potential to put an end to this disease-based discrimination.’

Chronic viral hepatitis has a huge impact globally with an estimated 500 million people infected with hepatitis B or C which collectively cause approximately one million deaths each year. About one fifth of patients with chronic hepatitis B and C are at risk of developing cirrhosis or liver cancer.  Liver cancer is one of the top three causes of cancer death in men, and a major cause of cancer death in women.