Working Towards Hepatitis C Elimination

The World Health Organization (WHO) set a target to eliminate hepatitis by 2030, a goal that calls for a 90% reduction in new infections and a 65% reduction in mortality compared with 2015 levels. Hepatitis C has the second largest disease burden in the world, behind hepatitis B. Globally, an estimated 47 million people have chronic hepatitis C virus infection, with about 0.9 million new infections occurring per year, the WHO reports.

“Of the cumulative total 68 million people (95% uncertainty interval (UI): 46–103 million) ever infected with HCV infection globally during the period 2015–2024, 36% (95% UI: 17-57%) knew their diagnosis, which is equivalent to 24 million people (95% UI: 18–25 million),” WHO reports. “Of those diagnosed with chronic HCV infection, around 20% (95% UI: 10–31%) had been treated with DAAs by the end of 2024, which is equivalent to 13 million people (95% UI: 12–20 million). As of 2024, 11 million people (95% UI: 7.4–15 million) had been diagnosed with HCV infection but were not yet on treatment.”

Reaching people living with the virus and getting them into the continuum of care remains one of the biggest obstacles.

The European Commission approved glecaprevir/pibrentasvir (Maviret) for hepatitis C back in June. The regimen allows clinicians to test and treat immediately, clearing the virus in 8 weeks. And because patients clear the virus faster, the window for transmission narrows substantially.

"It's really hard to get these patients living with HCV into care. Once you have them, you can test them and you treat them right away,” said Mudra Kapoor, MD, vice president, Global Neuroscience, Eye Care & Specialty, Value + Impact Office, Medical Affairs + Health Impact AbbVie, said of the ability to test and treat patients sooner.

Speeding treatment addresses only part of the elimination challenge. Linking diagnosed patients to care, reducing stigma, and adapting testing models to different health systems remain ongoing priorities, Kapoor noted, and progress depends on sustained collaboration between manufacturers, governments, and health authorities.

Many people with hepatitis C do not know they are infected, making outreach and simplified testing pathways as important as treatment speed. With an eight-week option now available, clinicians have one more tool to shorten the path from diagnosis to cure, though the WHO's 2030 target will hinge on whether testing and linkage-to-care gaps close at a similar pace.

"We've got to continue to work with the different governments and different entities to make sure that whatever model works in terms of testing and treating, that there's a lot of effort that still needs to be made," Kapoor said. " [We need to] continue to remove barriers and continue to remove stigma for this curable disease, and give these patients a chance to live their best lives on their own terms."

This is the second episode in a 2-part series. In the first part, Kapoor discussed efficacy and safety data for glecaprevir/pibrentasvir.

Reference
Hepatitis C. WHO. Accessed August 11, 2026.
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/hepatitis-c