Every year, on July 28, World Hepatitis Day draws attention to one of the world’s most underestimated health challenges. The date marks the birthday of Nobel laureate Dr Baruch Blumberg, who discovered the hepatitis B virus and developed its first vaccine.
Viral hepatitis rarely occupies public conversation with the urgency reserved for cancer, diabetes or heart disease, despite affecting millions of people and continuing to remain a major cause of liver cirrhosis and liver cancer globally. Presumably, a part of the reason lies in the nature of the disease itself. Hepatitis does not usually arrive dramatically. It progresses quietly, often unnoticed for years, allowing life to continue normally while silent inflammation gradually damages the liver. Fatigue is dismissed as stress. Mild digestive discomfort is ignored. In many cases, there are no symptoms at all until the disease has already advanced significantly. That silence is what makes hepatitis especially dangerous.
India carries one of the world’s largest burdens of hepatitis B and hepatitis C. Millions are estimated to be living with these infections, many without diagnosis or treatment. Yet, unlike several other chronic illnesses, viral hepatitis presents a rare and important public health opportunity because prevention, early detection and effective treatment are all possible.
Hepatitis B, for instance, is preventable through vaccination. India’s universal immunisation programme has helped protect millions of children over the years, representing one of the country’s important public health achievements. Yet, a large adult population remains outside that protective shield simply because routine vaccination was not widespread when they were growing up. Many continue to live vulnerable to infection without realising that protection is still available.
Adult vaccination against hepatitis B remains far less discussed than it should be. Preventive health care conversations in India still tend to focus more on treatment than immunity, more on responding to illness than preventing it altogether. Expanding awareness around adult vaccination through workplaces, annual health evaluations, schools, community outreach and family medicine programmes could meaningfully reduce the country’s future burden of liver disease.
The larger lesson extends beyond hepatitis. Public health systems become truly effective when prevention becomes part of everyday thinking rather than an afterthought reserved for moments of illness. This is why routine screening deserves far greater importance within preventive health care. High-risk individuals, health care workers, pregnant women and those with a family history of liver disease benefit significantly from early testing. Increasingly, hepatitis screening should also become part of regular health assessments and workplace wellness programmes, particularly in urban India where preventive health care participation is steadily increasing.
Equally important is the need to remove stigma from conversations around liver disease. Viral hepatitis is not a reflection of personal failure. It is a medical condition that deserves openness, empathy and timely care. Silence and hesitation only delay the diagnosis.
Across Apollo Hospitals, the consequences of delayed detection are visible all too often. Patients frequently seek medical attention only after liver disease has significantly advanced, despite years during which intervention might have altered outcomes entirely. This recognition has strengthened Apollo’s emphasis on preventive liver health through vaccination advocacy, integrated screening pathways, specialised hepatology programmes and coordinated multidisciplinary care focused on identifying disease earlier and improving long-term outcomes.
The encouraging reality is that viral hepatitis is not a crisis without solutions. Few major diseases today offer such a powerful combination of prevention, early detection and effective treatment. The science already exists and the infrastructure continues to evolve. The remaining challenge is whether awareness can spread as effectively as the disease once did.
Diseases that progress quietly often require the strongest public response. The future of liver health in India may depend less on discovering new medical breakthroughs and more on our willingness to act before the liver is finally forced to speak.
Dr Preetha Reddy is Executive Vice Chairperson of Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited.
