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  • OUTLOOK

Simplify access to hepatitis B care

Overhauling the guidelines for who has access to testing and treatment would lower costs and improve patient outcomes.
  1. Margaret Hellard

    1. Margaret Hellard is an infectious-disease physician and researcher at the Burnet Institute and the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, Australia.

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  2. Jessica Howell

    1. Jessica Howell is a liver specialist and researcher at the Burnet Institute and St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia.

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Hepatitis B is a major global killer: almost 300 million people worldwide are living with chronic hepatitis B infections, and more than 800,000 people die every year from hepatitis-B-related liver failure and liver cancer1. The impact of this viral disease is greatest in low-resource settings.

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Nature 603, S53 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-00815-y

This article is part of Nature Outlook: Hepatitis B, an editorially independent supplement produced with the financial support of third parties. About this content.

References

  1. Howell, J. et al. J. Hepatol. 74, 535–549 (2021).

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  2. World Health Organization. Global Hepatitis Report 2017 (WHO, 2017).

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  3. Kennedy, P. T. F., Litwin, S., Dolman, G. E., Bertoletti, A. & Mason, W. S. Viruses 9, 96 (2017).

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  4. Pan, C. Q. et al. N. Engl. J. Med. 374, 2324–2334 (2016).

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  5. Kim, H.-L. et al. Gut 70, 2172–2182 (2021).

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Competing Interests

M.H. receives investigator-initiated research funding from Gilead Sciences and Abbvie for work unrelated to this article. J.H. has received speaker fees from Gilead Sciences, Eisai (MSD), and investigator initiated grant funding from Gilead Sciences (Australia fellowship 2017, 2020). J.H. is a member of the Victorian Hepatitis B Alliance community organization, a research and advocacy organization (Australia), and a member of the International Coalition for Elimination of Hepatitis B, global hepatitis B research organization.

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