Public health interventions to achieve hepatitis B elimination and reduce liver cancer

Hepatitis B infection affects over 292 million people worldwide and is a major public health issue. Without timely treatment, chronic hepatitis B infection can cause death from liver damage and liver cancer, and hepatitis B is the lead cause of liver cancer and liver-related deaths worldwide. Due to the global scale of public health impact from hepatitis B, the World Health Organization (WHO) has set hepatitis B elimination targets to be achieved by 2030 to increase diagnosis, linkage to care and treatment rates for people living with hepatitis B. However, there are currently major barriers to achieving these goals within Australia.

The Burnet Institute Hepatitis B Elimination program takes a multifaceted approach to achieve hepatitis B elimination in Australia through research projects addressing key goals of the WHO global elimination program.

These projects include:

• clinical studies of novel health system interventions to increase hepatitis B testing, linkage to care and treatment
• qualitative studies to explore attitudes, preferences and barriers for hepatitis B care, focusing on people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities
• novel diagnostic development and translation from bench to bedside
• epidemiology, surveillance data analysis and qualitative research to understand the hepatitis B epidemic in Australia, including liver cancer.