World Hepatitis Day 2020 Summary Report

No one should have to live with viral hepatitis without knowing.

Yet, globally more than 290 million men, women and children do. Unless there is a massive scale-up in screening, diagnosis and linkage to care, more people will become infected and lives will continue to be lost.

The Find the Missing Millions campaign – a three-year global awareness-raising and advocacy campaign aimed at tackling the main barriers to diagnosis by putting civil society organisations and the affected community at the heart of the solution – was launched on WHD 2018. Now in its third and final year, the campaign is used in countries around the world to raise awareness of viral hepatitis, to influence national testing policies, and to increase diagnosis rates.

In spite of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the global hepatitis community united with policymakers, medical professionals and the general public to reach hundreds of millions of people with life-saving information about viral hepatitis.

Below are some of the key online achievements from World Hepatitis Day:

• The official #WorldHepatitisDay hashtag achieved more than half a billion impressions on Twitter alone!
• World Hepatitis Day trended on social media worldwide as well as nationally in 15 countries.
• 3,000 people and organisations from more than 100 countries signed the NOhep movement’s open letter urging governments worldwide to prioritise hepatitis elimination.
• The first-ever World Hepatitis Day virtual video relay passed through 37 countries, marking the start of World Hepatitis Day from New Zealand all the way to Hawai’i.