World Hepatitis Alliance
Strategy 2026-2029
The World Hepatitis Alliance (WHA) is declaring viral hepatitis a global health emergency.
With increasing mortality of over 1.3 million lives lost each year to hepatitis B and C, the most of any communicable disease. Nearly 300 million people are living with viral hepatitis – 3% of the world’s population. The situation has gone past the point of being a crisis: it is an emergency.1
Hepatitis B is an epidemic out of control. No country is on track to meet the 2030 elimination goal. Despite some areas of progress, hepatitis C remains largely underdiagnosed, under-treated and under-resourced.2 Many of those who are diagnosed are lost to follow-up and may suffer serious health consequences as a result.
Recent changes in the global health architecture caused by funding cuts, the rise of misinformation, the questioning of established scientific norms by governments, and proposals for unethical research, mean that the work of WHA is more important than ever. We must protect the progress hepatitis elimination has made.
It is time for bold action. WHA is committed to break the barriers that are holding us back and drive progress towards our goal of a hepatitis-free future.
To achieve this, WHA commits to the following strategic objectives:
1: Increase the urgency and speed of the hepatitis response
Goal: Accelerate political commitment and funding for hepatitis elimination on a global, national, and local level.
Key Activities :
Engagement at the highest level:
Advocate for a UN High-Level Meeting (HLM) on hepatitis elimination:
Deliver World Hepatitis Day / World Hepatitis Testing Week:
Strengthen country-level advocacy:
2: Drive a whole health system approach to hepatitis
Goal: Integrate hepatitis prevention, testing, and care into broader health systems.
Key Activities :
Convene the World Hepatitis Summit (WHS):
Launch WHA’s cancer campaign and promote integration:
Deliver regular advocacy activations on integration:
Collaborate with member organisations and external stakeholders to deliver targeted advocacy activations. Work with diabetes groups to advocate for routine hepatitis testing, liver patient groups to explore the needs of those living with hepatitis and also steatotic liver disease (SLD), and with men’s health groups to promote awareness and testing.
3: Realise a generation free of hepatitis
Goal: Ensure the prevention of hepatitis to protect future generations.
Key Activities :
Generate domestic funding:
Maximise donor support:
Build capacity for community-led prevention services including harm reduction.
Deliver in-country programmes:
4: Improve the health of people living with or cured of viral hepatitis
Goal: Expand access to high-quality care and treatment for people living with or cured of chronic hepatitis.
Key Activities :
Increase access to treatment:
Pave the way for hepatitis B functional cure:
Reduce loss to follow-up:
Provide resources to support community-led responses to address barriers to care and retention in treatment programmes.
Maximise donor support for hepatitis C testing, treatment and care:
Support countries in applying for Global Fund and other donor support for hepatitis C. Work with members and global partners on advocacy and raising awareness.
Inform and accelerate the hepatitis delta response:
Community-based research and member support to expand understanding of hepatitis delta and improve access to diagnosis and treatment. Community-led education for health care professionals on hepatitis delta and its human impact. Advocate for access to emerging hepatitis delta therapies and diagnostics.
Embed hepatitis testing, treatment and care within mental health services:
Through the NOhep Medical Visionaries programme, increase awareness among health care professionals and advocate for the integration of hepatitis elimination in mental health care pathways and national strategies.
5: Improve the quality of life of people living with or cured of viral hepatitis
Goal: Empower people living with or cured of viral hepatitis to enjoy an excellent quality of life, reduce stigma, and overcome discrimination.
Key Activities :
Establish the Hepatitis Stigma Watch:
Combat discrimination:
Increase well-being:
6: Empower communities and nurture a strong future for the movement
Goal: Strengthen the hepatitis community and civil society organisations to increase their impact and ensure long-term sustainability.
Key Activities :
Build the Community Impact Programme (CIP):
Develop a Future Leaders Programme (FLP):
Support WHA members to increase their impact:
Enhance member support through regular webinars, virtual networking events, and sharing of advocacy resources.
Nurture a youth movement:
Continue to build a hepatitis youth movement by engaging members and stakeholders to development a robust strategy to move forward.
WHA will achieve these objectives through five pillars of work:
Goal: Accelerate political commitment and funding for hepatitis elimination on a global, national, and local level.
Key Activities :
1. Landscape shaping
Drive action on hepatitis elimination across health systems and the global health agenda:
- Cancer / non-communicable diseases
- Universal health coverage (UHC) / health systems strengthening
- Maternal and child health
- Liver health
- Vaccination
- Key populations including migrants, refugees, indigenous people, people who inject drugs, men who have sex with men, people in prison and other affected groups
- Financing and resource mobilisation
- Data, surveillance, and accountability
- Health equity and an enabling legal and policy environment
Hold international bodies and national governments accountable to the 2030 commitments.
Increase funding and resources available for elimination.
2. Leading and convening
Facilitate a robust global network of civil society organisations to share knowledge, experience and accelerate change.
Convene stakeholders across the elimination system to generate synergies, innovation, collaboration, and joint working.
Lead the activist movement focused on equity, social justice, and human rights.
3. Community mobilisation
Increase the skills and abilities of civil society to advocate for and implement elimination.
Support and motivate individuals living with or affected by hepatitis to use their voices to drive change.
Empower communities to achieve sustainable financing for their work and good governance of their organisations.
4. Paradigm-shifting communications
Shift narratives by reframing hepatitis as not just a concern, but a public health emergency and elimination as a matter of health equity, justice, and political responsibility.
Increase empathy for people living with and affected by hepatitis to generate compassion in society and behaviour change in decision makers.
Increase knowledge and awareness of hepatitis as a preventable and treatable condition, its impact, and the need for its elimination.
Centre the voices and lived experiences of people living with and affected by hepatitis through ethical, community-led storytelling that builds empathy and credibility while safeguarding dignity and safety.
5. Community-led research
Conduct evidence-based research and pilot projects to expand knowledge, improve data quality, drive innovation, provide best practice, and accelerate elimination.
Optimise community-generated evidence to influence policy and inform global decision-making.
Support operational research to identify implementation gaps and advocate for more effective community-centred programmes.
- World Health Organization. Global hepatitis report 2024: action for access in low- and middle-income countries [Internet]. 2024 [Accessed 25 February 2025]. Available at: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240091672