New data on hepatitis C released by the Polaris Observatory shows that nine countries — Australia, Brazil, Egypt, Georgia, Germany, Iceland, Japan, the Netherlands and Qatar — are on course to eliminate hepatitis C by 2030.
Worldwide, viral hepatitis kills more than one million people each year, and more than 300 million people are chronically infected with hepatitis B or C. Yet, with the development of highly-effective direct acting antivirals (DAAs) for hepatitis C and the increasing rates of 
hepatitis B treatment and vaccination coverage globally, elimination of viral hepa-titis has become a real possibility.
Brazil has committed to gradually lift treatment restrictions in 2018, meaning that the country will be able to treat all people infected with hepatitis C, ensuring it is on target to eliminate hepatitis C. Previously, treatment was restricted to only the sickest patients with advanced liver disease.
“Brazil has championed the cause of hepatitis on the world stage for many years and has pushed for an intensified global hepatitis response,” says Adele Schwartz Benzaken, director of the Brazilian Ministry of Health’s Department of Surveillance, Prevention and Control of STIs, HIV/ AIDS and Viral Hepatitis. “In addition to the work we have already done on hepatitis B, opening up vaccination to the whole population, we are now gradually removing the restrictions on access to hepatitis C treatment – so that, from 2018 on, the entire infected population can be treated, not just the sickest.”