Global HBV mortality burden remains high

Despite a global initiative to reduce hepatitis B mortality, few of the countries with the highest burden are on track to meet elimination targets, according to research presented at the Liver Meeting Digital Experience.

Rochelle Obiekwe, a graduate student in epidemiology at the University of Georgia College of Public Health, and colleagues evaluated the progress of these elimination efforts by tracking trends in estimated HBV mortality at the country level between 1990 and 2019.

“The estimates of hepatitis B mortality are taken from the Global Burden of Disease study, which was conducted by the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation to estimate the leading causes of morbidity and mortality from HBV globally, regionally and nationally,” she said in a press release. “HBV mortality estimates from the study are of particular importance, as they provide a standard set of data to estimate changes in hepatitis B mortality, and monitor progress toward global hepatitis B elimination goals.”

Researchers found that the total global HBV-related death counts have remained mostly the same from 1990 (524,477) to 2019 (555,487).

Since 2015, 25 counties have met the HBV mortality target rate of a 10% reduction in total HBV-related deaths, or mortality rate. However, investigators said none of these reductions were significant.

As of 2019, the 20 countries with the highest death counts accounted for 81% of the global HBV-related deaths, and among these countries, only three are on track to meet the 2020 interim goal of either a 10% reduction in death count or mortality rate (Russia, Democratic Republic of the Congo and India).

“HBV continues to be a major cause of preventable mortality globally,” Obiekwe said in the release. “It has a disproportionate impact on some countries, where HBV is the leading cause of liver cancer and a major cause of cancer deaths. Data from the GBD study can be used to inform political leaders and guide the scale up vaccination, testing and treatment to decrease HBV preventable deaths. To make data more accessible to national and local stakeholders, the Coalition for Global Hepatitis Elimination has developed open-access country data dashboards. As IHME looks to the next round of GBD estimation, additional country-level empirical studies will improve precision of their estimates.”