World Hepatitis Day is celebrated every year on 28 July, this year under the theme "Elimination". The date is an opportunity to intensify national and international efforts against hepatitis and urge partners and member States to support the implementation of the first Global Strategy for Health Sector on viral hepatitis for 2016-2021, which was approved during the sixty-ninth World Health Assembly in May 2016.

The new strategy introduces the first global targets to eliminate viral hepatitis. These include a reduction up to 30% in new cases of hepatitis B and C, and a 10% reduction in mortality by 2020.

"The world has ignored hepatitis at your own risk," said Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO. "It is time to mobilize a global response to hepatitis in similar scale to that generated in combating other communicable diseases such as HIV / AIDS and tuberculosis." Around the world 400 million people are infected with hepatitis B and C, more than 10 times the number of people living with HIV.

It is estimated that 95% of people with hepatitis are unaware of their infection. According to WHO, hepatitis has a good chance of cure if diagnosed early and treated properly.

In Guinea-Bissau, the prevalence is between 12, 17 and 19% of cases registered last year, according to data of the Department of Communicable and Non communicable Diseases of the Public Health Ministry. According to the same source, in 2015, it was observed that 13.24% patients had hepatitis B and 0.15% others suffered from hepatitis C. It was also discovered in the same group that 2.13% of people tested were suffering the same time from hepatitis B and HIV.

According to the World Health Organization Representative in Guinea-Bissau, Dr. Ayigan Kossi, the country still lacks a systematic screening for an overview of the extent of the. "Depending on the mode of transmission, WHO is providing support to Bissau-Guinean Government through public awareness and then provides people with the means to prevent against the different forms of hepatitis, which have variable difficulties according to their transmission mode,"  he explained.

The Director of Communicable and Non communicable Diseases Department, Cristóvão Manjuba, stressed that "the country still does not have a large proportion based study to know the real prevalence of the disease, but according to the data in our possession, hepatitis has increased among people 40 to 49 years hold, and that only in 2015, 583 positive cases of hepatitis B were recorded on a set of 783 cases, compared to only nine positive cases of hepatitis C, so I appeal to all to do the screening test that will let them know their serology status in order to prevent and take care to avoid future complications. " 

Hepatitis is an inflammatory disease of the liver traditionally caused by a viral infection. There are five main types of viruses: A, B, C, D and E, which may cause infection and inflammation of the liver and lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer.

Hepatitis B, C and D arise by contact with infected body fluids (blood transfusion or unprotected intercourse, for example) while the A and E from ingestion of water or contaminated food.