The theme for this year’s global campaign is ELIMINATION.

In 2010 the World Health Organization made World Hepatitis Day one of only four official disease-specific world health days, to be celebrated each year on the 28th July. Millions of people across the world now take part in World Hepatitis Day, to raise awareness about viral hepatitis, and to call for access to treatment, better prevention programmes and government action.

More information on World Hepatitis Day is available at http://worldhepatitisday.org/

Background

Hepatitis B and hepatitis C infections can lead to acute or chronic liver disease, which may progress to liver cirrhosis or liver cancer.

Hepatitis B virus is transmitted through contact with the blood or other body fluids of an infected person. It can be transmitted through unprotected sex, sharing drug injecting equipment, and from mother to child around the time of birth. Vaccination can prevent infection.  Children born to mothers infected with hepatitis B should be immunised at birth. Hepatitis B vaccine is part of the childhood immunisation programme offered to all infants in Ireland.

Hepatitis C virus is mainly spread through blood-to-blood contact. Most new cases in developed countries like Ireland are in injecting drug users. In rare cases it can be transmitted through unprotected sex and from mother to child around the time of birth. There is no vaccination for hepatitis C. Treatment for hepatitis C has advanced significantly in recent years and now offers a cure for the majority of patients without advanced liver disease. The National Hepatitis C Treatment Programme was established by the HSE in 2015 to ensure that persons living with hepatitis C in Ireland are given access to appropriate treatment options.

Trends in hepatitis B and C in Ireland

Hepatitis B

Hepatitis B is a notifiable disease in Ireland. Improvements were made to the hepatitis B notification system in 2004 with the introduction of mandatory laboratory reporting and the differentiation between acute cases (recent infections) and chronic cases (long-term infections).

Figure 1. Number of notifications of hepatitis B, 1997-2015, by acute or chronic status 

Notifications of hepatitis B increased steeply from 2000 to 2008, followed by a gradual decrease. This trend corresponded to immigration from countries of high hepatitis B prevalence. The downward trend appears to have reversed in 2014 and 2015, probably related to increasing immigration numbers in recent years. The majority of notifications were of chronic cases. The number of acute cases notified has generally been low and has decreased in recent years.

The majority of notifications of acute hepatitis B have been in males and in young to middle-aged adults. Where information on risk factor was available, over three quarters of cases were sexually acquired.

The majority of notifications of chronic hepatitis B have been in young adults, with slightly higher numbers in males than females. Where information was available, the majority of chronic cases were born in countries of high prevalence or were asylum seekers.

Further details on hepatitis B notifications in Ireland are available in HPSC quarterly and annual reports and slide set.

Hepatitis C

Hepatitis C first became notifiable in Ireland in 2004. Notifications of hepatitis C peaked in 2007. The downward trend in the number of notifications since 2007 has slowed in recent years. Two thirds of cases were male. The majority of cases were young adults but the average age at notification has increased from 31 years in 2004 to 38.5 years in 2015. Where risk factor information was available, the majority of hepatitis cases were in people who inject drugs.

Figure 2. Number of notifications of hepatitis C, 2004-2015, by sex and mean age 

Further details on hepatitis C notifications in Ireland are available in HPSC quarterly and annual reports and slide set.

Lelia Thornton and Niamh Murphy, HPSC

Further information

World Hepatitis Day:  

http://worldhepatitisday.org/

Information about hepatitis B and hepatitis C:

http://www.hpsc.ie/A-Z/Hepatitis/HepatitisB/

https://www.hse.ie/eng/health/az/H/Hepatitis-C/

http://who.int/topics/hepatitis/en/