On 28 July 2025, individuals, organisations, policy makers and governments around the world celebrated World Hepatitis Day (WHD), which is one of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) seven officially-mandated global public health days.
The theme of World Hepatitis Day 2025 was “Let’s break it down.”
This World Hepatitis Day, we broke down the barriers holding us back from a hepatitis-free world. The World Hepatitis Alliance, our partners, allies, and our 400 members in 120 countries called for action to end this entirely preventable disease.
People living with hepatitis are still not being heard or getting the resources they need, despite the global scale of the problem. There is no time to waste! The WHD campaign amplified the voices of people affected by viral hepatitis calling for immediate action from decision makers globally to prioritise the elimination of viral hepatitis.
We undertook a social media and email campaign to announce the new theme, with new social media graphics, posters, films and other assets used to promote the message. Members, partners and stakeholders were encouraged to join the campaign, as well as other creative ways to engage with and support the campaign and raise awareness.
World Hepatitis Day received global support across sectors — from health ministries, industries, civil society organisations, global health bodies, and the United Nations.
96,000 website views with top visits from the US, UK, India, Nigeria, Canada, Australia, and Pakistan.
Almost 3k downloads of WHD assets such as social media graphics and posters
Over 1.7m views of WHD campaign videos on social media
31m impressions across social media
About 40 organisations and individuals joined our global virtual relay across 20 countries, where stakeholders shared their video and told the world what hepatitis elimination meant to them. Some of these videos where shared during WHO’s webinar in the section: “Round the world in 10 minutes” featuring WHD activities and support from civil societies and countries.
Let’s break it down: Combating hepatitis stigma and discrimination (The Lancet)
Eliminating hepatitis is cancer prevention (UICC)
Time to Eliminate the World’s Second Deadliest Virus (Action for Global Health)
The hero campaign video “Let’s break it down” took a different form this year as an explainer video with different health specialists answering questions about hepatitis, debunking the myths around its mode of transmission, lifestyle, etc. The video has 96,000 views on YouTube
Our president, Rachel Halford, shared her World Hepatitis Day statement highlighting the facts about hepatitis to break down stigma. She called for the need for quicker actions to get back on track to achieving our goal. Read Rachel’s statement here.
This year’s campaign was launched with a webinar to share the different ways people and organisations could get involved in for WHD as well as the different new assets on the website.
On Thursday 17 July 2025, WHA hosted a webinar ahead of World Hepatitis Day to shine a light on hepatitis A and how its landscape is changing globally. The event explored the factors that continue to drive hepatitis A cases and how we can address the remaining challenges to reduce both the number of cases and deaths globally.
Chaired by Rachel Halford, President of the World Hepatitis Alliance, speakers included:
Dr Nick Walsh, consultant to WHO for the 2022 hepatitis A vaccine position paper, Monash University, Australia, Siew Lin Ngui, Clinical Scientist, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), Professor Abate Bane Shewaye, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, and Eden Mucache, President, Associacao Mocambicana para Saude e Ambiente, Mozambique.
The hepatitis B birth dose vaccine is a critical part of programmes to prevent mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis B. Vertical transmission of hepatitis B greatly increases an infant’s risk of developing liver cancer later in life but despite this, only 45% of newborns globally received the hepatitis B birth dose vaccine within 24 hours in 2022, with some regions further behind in implementing birth dose programmes. Ahead of World Hepatitis Day, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Hepatitis Alliance co-organised a webinar to promote the scale up of the hepatitis B birth dose vaccine in countries.
WHA was joined by panelists including Gloria Yamen Sonnen-Atinge, Nigeria, Professor Funmi Lesi, Hepatitis Team Lead, WHO, Doreen Ruth Akuno, Senior Nursing Office and Viral Hepatitis Focal point officer in the department of NDC Program under UNEPI, Ministry of Health Uganda, Hassan Sibomana, Director of EPI, Rwanda Biomedical Center.
The WHD community forum brought people living with hepatitis together to share their diverse experiences, perspectives, and unmet needs on a global scale. Featuring speakers from Africa, the US, and Europe, the panel explored global discussions, sharing their lived experiences of stigma and how they overcome it.
Chaired by Rachel Halford, President, WHA, speakers included: Supa Chantschool, CEO, HepB Companion, UK, Karen Hoyt, Author, Liver Loving Diet, US, and Chester Chimanda, Executive Director – Youth Movement for HIV/TB/SRHR Advocacy in Zambia).
