#key messages

A Great Key Message Needs a Great Message Delivery System Communicators focus much of their attention on developing a key message that clicks. They also should spend time ensuring key messages are heard in all the right places. Kathleen Stuart, founder of PUBLIC in Portland that provides PR counsel to public interest groups, offers practical advice on the mechanics of messaging, including how…

To eliminate hepatitis and achieve the WHO’s ambitious targets by 2030, simplified care services for viral hepatitis should ensure that:

all pregnant women living with chronic hepatitis B have access to treatment and their infants have access to hepatitis B birth vaccines to prevent infection;

90% of people living with hepatitis B and/or hepatitis C are diagnosed; and 

80% of diagnosed people are cured of hepatitis C or treated according to newer hepatitis B expanded eligibility criteria.

But while we have the guidance and tools to diagnose, treat, and prevent chronic viral hepatitis, these services are still too often out of reach of communities and are sometimes only available at centralized or specialized hospitals.    

Rapid diagnostic tests for viral hepatitis cost less than US$ 2, but many people still face out of pocket costs for testing.

There is now the option for hepatitis C self-testing and a WHO prequalified test to encourage testing in the face of stigma and discrimination.

While a timely dose of the hepatitis B vaccine can prevent babies from developing liver cancer later in life, only 45% of babies received the hepatitis B vaccine within 24 hours of birth in 2022.

Despite the availability of affordable generic viral hepatitis medicines, too many countries are still overpaying for them. For example, medicines used to treat hepatitis C (generic sofosbuvir and daclatasvir) costs US$ 60 for a 12-week course, but countries are paying anywhere between US$ 33to up to US$ 10 000.

Nearly 220 million with hepatitis B are undiagnosed, while nearly 36 million people with hepatitis C are undiagnosed. 

Most symptoms only appear once the disease is advanced, with most people discovering they have hepatitis B or C only when they develop serious liver disease or cancer.

Even after diagnosis, the coverage of treatment and care for people living with hepatitis is astonishingly low.

Of the 304 million people with hepatitis B and C, only 7 million are treated for hepatitis B and 12.5 million cured of hepatitis C.

Combined, hepatitis B and hepatitis C caused 1.3 million deaths in 2022.

Around 304 million people are living with a chronic viral hepatitis infection.

3 500 people die from hepatitis B and C infections every day. That’s around one hepatitis death every 30 seconds.

Over 6 000 people are newly infected with viral hepatitis each day.

By knowing your mental health rights, you can stand up for what’s right – for you and for others.

If people are not aware of their human rights, they are not able to advocate for them. By including people with lived experience of mental health conditions in decision-making on mental health issues, new policies, laws and service planning can be positively influenced and guided by their expertise.

We all have the right to live our lives free from stigma and discrimination in places like schools and workplaces. 

Mental health conditions affect one in seven adolescents globally, with depression emerging as a leading cause of adolescent illness and disability.