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World Hepatitis Day will be marked on July 28 across the globe. This year's theme is “Hepatitis can't wait”.

At a news conference on Tuesday, Romella Abovyan, the head of the Department for Epidemiology at the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention of the Ministry of Health, said that an estimated 325 million people worldwide live with chronic hepatitis, while 175,000 people die from various types of hepatitis.

Referring to the statistics of the World Health Organization, she said that every 30 seconds one person in the world dies from hepatitis.

"The epidemiological situation of viral hepatitis in Armenia is serious in the sense that no symptoms are developed. Unfortunately, people do not see a doctor as they don’t know that they have the disease, as a result of which the disease is diagnosed late in a complicated stage, when liver cirrhosis or primary cancer are detected," Abovyan said.

According to the data of the ministry, in recent years Armenia has seen a decrease in the incidence of hepatitis C and hepatitis B 9 and 6 times, respectively. Hepatitis B has not been diagnosed in children under 14 years of age, she said, attributing it to the vaccination program launched in 1999.

"In 2020, 1,244 cases of hepatitis were detected, 85% of which were asymptomatic," she said.

From this year, the ministry will provide direct-acting antiviral drugs to patients in need of primary treatment, Abovyan said, adding it is planned to provide drugs to patients with a clear diagnosis in the near future.