Theme: 'Driving transformative country and regional leadership into measurable life-saving impact’
- The future of hepatitis elimination lies in integrated, people-centred health systems - not standalone disease programmes.
One of the biggest lessons from our Region is that hepatitis cannot be eliminated through vertical programmes alone. We need to organize services around people, not diseases.
This is exactly the thinking behind our Banyan Framework and the proposed people-centred Multi-Disease Elimination (MDE) approach—bringing together programmes that share common platforms while maintaining disease-specific accountability. It is about moving from fragmented delivery to coordinated action and from policies to measurable impact.
Hepatitis is one of the strongest examples of why this works. A single antenatal visit can provide screening and care for HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B, while strengthening maternal and child health and protecting both mothers and newborns.
This approach is particularly important as countries navigate tighter health budgets. Integration is no longer simply an efficiency measure—it is essential if we are to accelerate progress towards the 2030 elimination targets.
The future of hepatitis elimination is about strengthening primary health care and delivering integrated services that meet people's needs.
2. The Region is proving that integrated approaches deliver measurable results. It is generating practical models that demonstrate how integrated, people-centred approaches can accelerate elimination while strengthening health systems. Now we need to scale them.
- The South-East Asia Region has achieved more than 35 communicable disease elimination milestones over the past decade, demonstrating that countries can achieve ambitious goals through sustained political commitment and strong health systems.
- We are seeing a shift from hepatitis B control through childhood immunization towards eliminating mother-to-child transmission, integrated with HIV and sexually transmitted infection programmes.
- Countries are showing what is possible:
- Maldives became the first country in the world to achieve Triple Elimination of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B, demonstrating how strong primary health care, universal health coverage and domestic financing can deliver remarkable results.
- Thailand has long been a regional leader, embedding hepatitis testing and treatment within universal health coverage and national health insurance, showing that elimination can become part of routine health services rather than a standalone programme.
- India and Bhutan are also advancing Triple EMTCT
- Cox's Bazar is another example of integrated action in practice. In the world's largest refugee settlement, WHO is coordinating more than 50 health partners to expand hepatitis C testing and treatment while strengthening integrated prevention of mother-to-child transmission services for HIV, syphilis, hepatitis B and hepatitis C. Despite shrinking humanitarian funding, more than 90,000 refugees have been screened, with cure rates of 94%—demonstrating that even in the most challenging settings, integrated, people-centred approaches can deliver measurable impact.WHO is supporting innovative hepatitis C testing and treatment in Cox's Bazar, ensuring refugees and other vulnerable populations are not left behind.
Hepatitis elimination is about keeping a promise—that the next generation grows up protected from a disease that we already know how to prevent, diagnose and treat. The next three and a half years must be about delivering on the promise of elimination.
- We already have the tools—effective vaccines, affordable diagnostics and curative treatment. The challenge is ensuring they reach everyone who needs them.
- South-East Asia remains home to 43 million people living with chronic hepatitis B, 8 million with hepatitis C, and around 200,000 hepatitis-related deaths every year. Yet only 5% of people living with hepatitis B know their status, treatment coverage remains extremely low, and timely hepatitis B birth-dose coverage is still only 58%.
- We also need to recognize that hepatitis is increasingly driving liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. Investing in hepatitis today is an investment in preventing tomorrow's cancer burden.
- As countries face constrained resources, our priorities should be clear: expand testing and treatment, increase timely birth-dose vaccination, strengthen infection prevention and control, use better data to drive accountability, and ensure integrated services reach those who are still being left behind.
WHO South-East Asia has demonstrated that elimination is possible. The challenge now is not discovering new solutions - it is scaling the ones we know work. By integrating services, strengthening primary health care, and keeping people at the centre of our efforts, we can turn regional leadership into measurable, life-saving impact and ensure that the next generation is protected.