The Asia-Pacific Region Has the World’s Highest Burden of Hepatitis B

In a global health emergency that gets little attention, roughly 300 million people worldwide are living with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and 820,000 died of HBV-related complications in 2019 alone. The Asia-Pacific region bears the highest overall burden of HBV, with 59% of those living with chronic HBV, 26% of new infections, and 79% of deaths.

Vaccines and treatments for HBV infection do exist, but as of 2019 only 2% of people in Southeast Asia had been diagnosed and just 0.2% were on treatment.

In response to the urgent threat HBV poses in the Asia-Pacific region, amfAR’s TREAT Asia program has issued a brief on the scope of the problem and what’s needed for the prevention, care, and treatment of people at risk for or impacted by HBV.

Read the brief here.