Challenges and opportunities in combating viral hepatitis in India: insights from the Indian Hepatitis Summit 2025

TL;DR

The Indian Hepatitis Summit 2025 brought together experts to address challenges in combating viral hepatitis in India and promote collaborative solutions.

Contribution

The summit provided insights into current challenges and opportunities for eliminating viral hepatitis in India through collaborative efforts and innovative tools like the Hepat App.

Findings

The summit identified barriers to hepatitis elimination and discussed potential solutions.

The Hepat App and a Hepatitis Online Course were launched to improve public health outcomes.

Discussions highlighted the importance of screening, diagnosis, treatment, and reducing stigma associated with viral hepatitis.

Abstract

The world has committed to ending viral hepatitis as a public health threat as part of sustainable development goal 3.3. World Health Organization (WHO) has developed Global Health Sector Strategies (GHSS 2022–2030) to provide guidance to countries to end viral hepatitis by 2030. India instituted the national program for prevention and control of viral hepatitis (National Viral Hepatitis Control Program, NVHCP) in 2018 in alignment with the global perspective and strategic framework. The Chennai Liver Foundation conducted the first Indian Hepatitis Summit 2025 as a collective movement towards a hepatitis-free India.

The summit was conducted on January 17–18, 2025, at Chennai. Healthcare professionals, policymakers, advocates, researchers, and civil society representatives gathered to share successes, discuss barriers, and address the urgent challenges of viral hepatitis and promote collaborative efforts to combat this silent epidemic in India.

The meeting was attended by 54 program faculty and 275 delegates from government agencies, national and international organizations, and public and private hospitals. The two-day agenda included 14 sessions, with 46 talks and four panel discussions. The summit gathered important lessons from global initiatives, surveyed the current landscape of viral hepatitis in India, shared the best practices from some parts of world including India, identified barriers to elimination initiatives, and discussed potential solutions to overcome these barriers. Discussions also included the developments in viral hepatitis screening, diagnosis, and treatment; the ways to tackle the stigma associated with the illness; and innovative measures to improve public health results. In collaboration with Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and National Institute of Epidemiology (NIE), the Chennai Liver Foundation launched the Hepat App and a Hepatitis Online Course.

The summit served as a platform to raise awareness about the importance of prevention, early diagnosis, and effective treatment options; and to delineate future directions for viral hepatitis elimination in India.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12919-025-00358-w.

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