The U.S. government’s funding cuts have shuttered many HIV programs, and activities targeted toward hepatitis prevention and elimination have also taken a hit as a result.
“Just as the entire infrastructure of the HIV program is suffering in myriad different ways — for the loss of viral load testing, loss of key personnel, loss of prevention programs — we’re also suffering in the hepatitis side because we share the same staff [and] we often share the same facilities,” said Alexander Stockdale, an infectious disease physician based in Malawi whose research has focused mainly on viral hepatitis.
An estimated 354 million people globally are affected by hepatitis B and C, the most prevalent forms of viral hepatitis and the most common causes of liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. That’s nearly nine times the global burden of HIV, and yet it gets very little global attention and direct funding, despite them being co-morbidities that contribute to mortality among persons with HIV.