Comment | Published:

The hepatitis B epidemic and the urgent need for cure preparedness

Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology 15, 517–518 (2018) | Download Citation

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More than 250 million people worldwide are chronically infected with the hepatitis B virus (HBV). In this Comment, members of the International Coalition to Eliminate HBV appraise the current policy environment and the need for appropriate cure research and preparedness to complement the WHO global elimination strategy, the HBV vaccine and the well-tolerated but poorly accessed therapy.

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Additional information

WHO/UNICEF birth-dose vaccination coverage estimates: http://apps.who.int/immunization_monitoring/globalsummary/timeseries/tswucoveragebcg.html

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        Acknowledgements

        The authors thank J. Pericàs and H. Nde for their input into an earlier draft of this article.

        Author information

        Affiliations

        1. Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), Hospital Clínic, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

          • Jeffrey V. Lazarus

        2. Baruch S. Blumberg Institute, Doylestown, PA, USA

          • Timothy Block

        3. Global Virus Network, Baltimore, MD, USA

          • Christian Bréchot

        4. Hepatitis Virus Diversity Research Unit, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

          • Anna Kramvis

        5. Forum for Collaborative Research, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

          • Veronica Miller

        6. World Hepatitis Alliance, London, UK

          • Michael Ninburg

        7. International Coalition to Eliminate HBV (ICE-HBV), The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

          • Capucine Pénicaud

        8. German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), Munich partner site, Munich, Germany

          • Ulrike Protzer

        9. Center for Disease Analysis Foundation, Lafayette, CO, USA

          • Homie Razavi

        10. WHO Collaborating Centre for Viral Hepatitis, Doherty Institute, Melbourne, Australia

          • Laura A. Thomas
          •  & Benjamin C. Cowie

        11. Burnet Institute, Melbourne, Australia

          • Jack Wallace

        12. Victorian Infectious Diseases Service, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, Australia

          • Benjamin C. Cowie

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        Competing interests

        The authors declare no competing interests.

        Corresponding author

        Correspondence to Jeffrey V. Lazarus.

        Supplementary information

        1. Supplementary Table 1, Supplementary Table 2

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        DOI

        https://doi.org/10.1038/s41575-018-0041-6

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