@article{3000058,
    title = "The case for simplifying and using absolute targets for viral hepatitis elimination goals",
    author = "Razavi, H. and Blach, S. and Razavi-Shearer, D. and Abaalkhail, F. and Abbas, Z. and Abdallah, A. and Abrao Ferreira, P. and Abu Raddad, L.J. and Adda, D. and Agarwal, K. and Aghemo, A. and Ahmed, A. and Al-Busafi, S.A. and Al-hamoudi, W. and Al-Kaabi, S. and Al-Romaihi, H. and Aljarallah, B. and AlNaamani, K. and Alqahtani, S. and Alswat, K. and Altraif, I. and Asselah, T. and Bacon, B. and Bessone, F. and Bizri, A.R. and Block, T. and Bonino, F. and Brandão-Mello, C.E. and Brown, K. and Bruggmann, P. and Brunetto, M.R. and Buti, M. and Cabezas, J. and Calleja, J.L. and Castro Batänjer, E. and Chan, H.L.-Y. and Chang, H. and Chen, C.-J. and Christensen, P.B. and Chuang, W.-L. and Cisneros, L. and Cohen, C. and Colombo, M. and Conway, B. and Cooper, C. and Craxi, A. and Crespo, J. and Croes, E. and Cryer, D. and Cupertino de Barros, F.P. and Derbala, M. and Dillon, J. and Doss, W. and Dou, X. and Doyle, J. and Duberg, A.-S. and Dugan, E. and Dunn, R. and Dusheiko, G. and El Khayat, H. and El-Sayed, M.H. and Eshraghian, A. and Esmat, G. and Esteban Mur, R. and Ezzat, S. and Falconer, K. and Fassio, E. and Ferrinho, P. and Flamm, S. and Flisiak, R. and Foster, G. and Fung, J. and García-Samaniego, J. and Gish, R.G. and Gonçales, F. and Halota, W. and Hamoudi, W. and Hassany, M. and Hatzakis, A. and Hay, S. and Himatt, S. and Hoepelman, I.M. and Hsu, Y.-C. and Hui, Y.T. and Hunyady, B. and Jacobson, I. and Janjua, N. and Janssen, H. and Jarcuska, P. and Kabagambe, K. and Kanto, T. and Kao, J.-H. and Kaymakoglu, S. and Kershenobich, D. and Khamis, F. and Kim, D.J. and Kim, D.Y. and Kondili, L.A. and Kottilil, S. and Kramvis, A. and Kugelmas, M. and Kurosaki, M. and Lacombe, K. and Lagging, M. and Lao, W.-C. and Lavanchy, D. and Lazarus, J.V. and Lee, A. and Lee, S.S. and Levy, M. and Liakina, V. and Lim, Y.-S. and Liu, S. and Maddrey, W. and Malekzadeh, R. and Marinho, R.T. and Mathur, P. and Maticic, M. and Mendes Correa, M.C. and Mera, J. and Merat, S. and Mogawer, S. and Mohamed, R. and Muellhaupt, B. and Muljono, D. and Mostafa, I. and Nahum, M.S. and Nawaz, A. and Negro, F. and Ninburg, M. and Ning, Q. and Ntiri- Reid, B. and Nymadawa, P. and Oevrehus, A. and Ormeci, N. and Orrego, M. and Osman, A. and Oyunsuren, T. and Pan, C. and Papaevangelou, V. and Papatheodoridis, G. and Popping, S. and Prasad, P. and Prithiviputh, R. and Qureshi, H. and Ramji, A. and Razavi-Shearer, K. and Reddy, R. and Remak, W. and Richter, C. and Ridruejo, E. and Robaeys, G. and Roberts, S. and Roberts, L. and Roudot-Thoraval, F. and Saab, S. and Said, S. and Salamat, A. and Sanai, F. and Sanchez-Avila, J.F. and Schiff, E. and Schinazi, R. and Sebastiani, G. and Seguin-Devaux, C. and Shanmugam, R.P. and Sharara, A. and Shilton, S. and Shouval, D. and Sievert, W. and Simonova, M. and Sohrabpour, A.A. and Sonderup, M. and Soza, A. and Wendy Spearman, C. and Steinfurth, N. and Sulkowski, M. and Tan, S.-S. and Tanaka, J. and Tashi, D. and Thein, H.-H. and Thompson, P. and Tolmane, I. and Toy, M. and Valantinas, J. and Van de Vijver, D. and Vélez-Möller, P. and Vince, A. and Waked, I. and Wang, S. and Wedemeyer, H. and Wong, V. and Xie, Q. and Yamada, S. and Yang, H.-I. and Yesmembetov, K. and Yilmaz, Y. and Younossi, Z. and Yu, M.-L. and Yuen, M.-F. and Yurdaydin, C. and Yusuf, A. and Zekry, A. and Zeuzem, S. and Polaris Observatory Collaborators",
    journal = "Journal of Viral Hepatitis",
    year = "2021",
    volume = "28",
    number = "1",
    pages = "12-19",
    publisher = "John Wiley and Sons Inc",
    issn = "1352-0504, 1365-2893",
    doi = "10.1111/jvh.13412",
    keywords = "antivirus agent;  hepatitis B vaccine, antiviral therapy;  Article;  blood donor;  blood safety;  harm reduction;  hepatitis B;  hepatitis C;  human;  incidence;  infection prevention;  liver cell carcinoma;  mortality;  mother to child transmission;  vaccination;  viral clearance;  World Health Organization;  liver cell carcinoma;  liver tumor;  motivation;  virus hepatitis, Carcinoma, Hepatocellular;  Goals;  Hepatitis, Viral, Human;  Humans;  Liver Neoplasms;  World Health Organization",
    abstract = "The 69th World Health Assembly endorsed the Global Health Sector Strategy for Viral Hepatitis, embracing a goal to eliminate hepatitis infection as a public health threat by 2030. This was followed by the World Health Organization's (WHO) global targets for the care and management of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections. These announcements and targets were important in raising awareness and calling for action; however, tracking countries’ progress towards these elimination goals has provided insights to the limitations of these targets. The existing targets compare a country's progress relative to its 2015 values, penalizing countries who started their programmes prior to 2015, countries with a young population, or countries with a low prevalence. We recommend that (1) WHO simplify the hepatitis elimination targets, (2) change to absolute targets and (3) allow countries to achieve these disease targets with their own service coverage initiatives that will have the maximum impact. The recommended targets are as follows: reduce HCV new chronic cases to ≤5 per 100 000, reduce HBV prevalence among 1-year-olds to ≤0.1%, reduce HBV and HCV mortality to ≤5 per 100 000, and demonstrate HBV and HCV year-to-year decrease in new HCV- and HBV-related HCC cases. The objective of our recommendations is not to lower expectations or diminish the hepatitis elimination standards, but to provide clearer targets that recognize the past and current elimination efforts by countries, help measure progress towards true elimination, and motivate other countries to follow suit. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd"
}