They do not make headlines, and yet: viral hepatitis are responsible each year for tens of thousands of deaths in Europe. “It’s a silent epidemic”recognizes the World Health Organization (WHO), which alerts: more than 65 % of cases of hepatitis B and 62 % of cases of hepatitis C in Europe are not diagnosed.
As a result, patients who ignore it, sometimes for years, until the disease is declared in the most serious form: cirrhosis or liver cancer.
An invisible threat that progresses
The situation in France: figures that worry
In France, more than 135,000 people would have chronic hepatitis B, but barely one in five really knows its status, according to Public Health France (Public Health France, 2016). For hepatitis C, prevalence is similar: around 0.3 % of the adult population would be affected, nearly 200,000 people. Again, a large part ignores it.
Local campaigns are trying to fill this delay. In Saint -Denis (Reunion), for example, on the occasion of World Day against Hepatitis (July 30, 2025), free and anonymous screening was proposed, allowing residents to know their status in a few minutes.
A strongly affected Europe
On a European scale, the figures make it vertigo. Nearly 5 million people are currently living with chronic infection by hepatitis B or C, according to the latest report of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). Together, these infections lead to around 50,000 deaths per year.
The diagnosis remains too late. The majority of countries do not have reliable data on the complete patient course (screening, diagnosis, processing, follow -up). In other words, thousands of patients pass between the mesh of the net each year.
Why do so many patients ignore their infection?
The reason is simple: hepatitis B and C are often asymptomatic for years. No pain, no fever, no visible sign. The disease progresses silently, damaging the liver without warning. So, many discover their infection at an advanced stage, sometimes at the time of the diagnosis of liver cancer.
And yet the solutions exist:
Screening: free and accessible centers everywhere
In France, screening is mainly done via CEGIDD (free information, screening and diagnostic centers), accessible everywhere in the territory. It is free and anonymous, and can be completed by vaccination against HBV.
At the national level, the screening rate has progressed. In Île -de -France, for example, more than 100 tests per 1,000 inhabitants were performed in 2021. An increased figure compared to previous years according to Public Health France.
NAMELY
In France, vaccination against hepatitis B has been compulsory for all infants since 2018. It protects effectively in more than 90 % of cases and remains the best way to avoid infection and its serious complications (public health France).
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