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  • OUTLOOK

The global fight against hepatitis B is benefitting some parts of the world more than others

Uneven access to health-care resources is complicating the drive to eliminate this viral infection.
  1. Emily Sohn

    1. Emily Sohn is a freelance journalist in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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Cartoon of two figures on a see-saw that is made of a hypodermic needle

Illustration: Chiara Zarmati

Between 2016 and 2018, researchers collected blood samples from more than 6,000 people in Ndirande, a low-income neighbourhood near the city of Blantyre in central Malawi. The researchers’ goal was to assess the impact of a hepatitis B vaccination programme 15 years after its implementation, and their analyses offered some good news. The disease was present in fewer than 0.5% of children born after the vaccine became available, and 97% of children had been vaccinated1.

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Nature 603, S58-S59 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-00818-9

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

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