Today is World Hepatitis Day
World Hepatitis Day is recognised every year on the 28th July. This date was chosen to mark the birthday of Professor Baruch Blumberg, awarded the Nobel Prize for his work in discovering the hepatitis B virus.
He said: ‘It's good to know that my birthday will be remembered in this unusual and unexpected way. We never thought this would happen when we were studying a strange protein from Australia.’
Day was launched by the World Hepatitis Alliance in 2008 in response to the concern that chronic viral hepatitis did not have the level of awareness, nor the political priority, seen with other communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. In May 2010 the World Health Assembly passed resolution WHA63.18 on viral hepatitis which provides official endorsement of World Hepatitis Day. Since 2010 World Hepatitis Day has been coordinated by the World Hepatitis Alliance in collaboration with the WHO.