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Hepatitis kills more people than tuberculosis or HIV
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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Scientists suggest that viral hepatitis may become a new threat to the lives of all humanity. A new study conducted by specialists from Imperial College London and the University of Washington found that more people die from viral hepatitis each year than from AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.
There are several forms of viral hepatitis, infection occurs through food or water, saliva, unprotected sexual intercourse, and also through the fecal-oral route.
Experts studied data obtained from different countries (more than 180 countries took part in the study), which were collected over 23 years. As a result, it was found that more than 95% of deaths are associated with hepatitis B or C, which destroy the liver and develop cirrhosis or cancer. Patients with this form of hepatitis feel tired, nauseous, the skin turns yellow, but most often the disease is asymptomatic and people live for years without knowing about the infection until serious complications appear.
The scientists also found that over 23 years, people began to die more often from viral hepatitis (by 63%), mainly from high- and middle-income countries. Lead author of the study Graham Cook noted that the work conducted by his colleagues represents the maximum analysis of viral hepatitis on a global scale. The data obtained indicate that the number of deaths from this disease exceeds 1 million, while mortality from other dangerous diseases has been declining since 1990.
Modern medicine treats some types of viral hepatitis quite successfully, effective vaccines and drugs have been developed, but the fight against this disease is funded much less than, for example, the fight against tuberculosis, HIV or malaria.
In a study of data from different countries, as already mentioned, the number of deaths from various liver diseases, including cirrhosis, has increased by 63% since 1990 – from 890 thousand to 1,450,000.
In 2013, hepatitis caused more deaths than HIV (1,300,000 people), malaria (855,000 people), and tuberculosis (1,400,000 people).
In addition, researchers have found that hepatitis is more common in East Asia, and predominantly in forms B and C. According to experts, one of the reasons for this may be that these types of the virus are virtually asymptomatic and gradually cause serious damage to the liver.
Recently, scientists from the Hannover Medical School (Germany) and Skolkovo University (Russia) have developed a new drug that helps control viral hepatitis types B and D, which are considered fatal. The new drug has shown good results in clinical trials – in combination with traditional treatment methods, 72% of patients were completely cured of hepatitis.
Hepatitis B and D viruses are extremely dangerous because patients develop cirrhosis or liver cancer within a few years of infection, and a new drug offers hope for recovery to thousands of people.
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