Kigali, July 28 – Today, the Ministry of Health and its affiliated institutions including Rwanda Biomedical Center and Hospitals, together with several government’s health development partners, joined the rest of the world to celebrate the World Hepatitis Day. 
Several partners, government officials and program beneficiaries have commended Rwanda for being on the last mile to eliminate Hepatitis C from Rwanda, after listing its achieved milestones to mitigate the disease. 
Several key achievements have been highlighted.
Rwanda launched a Viral Hepatitis C (HCV) elimination plan in December 2018, with the goal to screen 7 million people aged 15 years and above and treat all positive cases to reduce the HCV prevalence from 4% to 1% within 5 years. 
By launching the HCV national elimination plan, Rwanda is the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to have done so.
Following the launch of HCV elimination, the country has negotiated prices for tests and medicines to get a rapid test at 0.75$ and a price record of $60 for the full three months’ treatment course of hepatitis C, to allow a procurement of enough tests and medicines.
Rwanda has then simplified diagnostic and treatment methods by introducing Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTs) providing results in 20 minutes and Direct Acting Antiretrovirals (DAAs) for a three months HCV treatment course with less or no side effects and a cure rate of around 95%.
Testing and treatment services have been decentralized at different levels including referral, provincial, district hospitals and all the health centers across the country.
The figures from Rwanda Biomedical Center indicate that more than 7,000,000 people have been screened against Hepatitis C and close to 60,000 of them have been confirmed positive and treated. Additionally, more than 7,000,000 people including adults and children have been vaccinated against Hepatitis B while 4,000,000 people have screened with 7,000 people on a lifelong treatment. 
All the above efforts contributed to a great reduction in disease burden: The estimated prevalence of chronic Hepatitis C and B dropped from 4 percent and more than 3 percent in 2015 to less than 0.39 percent and 0.35 percent respectively in 2022. 
Consequently, based on the progress made by Rwanda in reaching hepatitis elimination targets set by the WHO, Rwanda was selected among the seven countries with advanced hepatitis program that were assessed for hepatitis elimination validation readiness and Rwanda was qualified to be on track for hepatitis C elimination. Other countries that have been part of the same exercise include England, Georgia, Brazil, Thailand, Mongolia and Egypt.
During the World Hepatitis Day celebration, The World Health Organisation Representative in Rwanda, Dr. Brian Chirombo hailed the government’s efforts on reaching the last mile, and ascertained that the remaining miles shall also be achieved, courtesy to the efforts demonstrated by Rwanda. 
“Rwanda has been among proactive countries that negotiated for the medication of Hepatitis to be decreased and we are hopeful due to the capacity demonstrated, that even the remaining achievements shall be registered,” he observed. 
On the other hand, Medical practitioners consider Hepatitis as a silent killer as it has claimed about 125,000 deaths on the African continent despite the availability of treatment. 
Talking on behalf of civil societies that also played their role in elimination of this viral disease, Doctor Constance Mukabatsinda expressed gratitude to the government for the significant milestone. 
“On behalf of the patients, we are proud of the government’s efforts towards eliminating hepatitis. In the past, we had to pay 12 million to get treatment but currently, it is free of charge, we’ve gone a long way she announced. 
Speaking at the event, Doctor Daniel Ngamije, the Minister of Health, has asserted that strategies used have proved that diagnosis and treatment of the viral hepatitis is possible. 
“To date, the progress made in developing new Hepatitis C therapeutics assures that Hepatitis C can be easily diagnosed and treated using simplified methods”, he commented. 
“Similarly, Hepatitis B vaccine in new-borns and adults are proven to prevent transmission especially from mother to child, therefore these services should not be considered as a luxury, rather, they need to be regularly provided in all health facilities and integrated in the routine care”.
He added: We are on track for hepatitis elimination, the journey is still long but targets are within our reach and with our collective efforts we can achieve the hepatitis elimination!”. 
Hepatitis is still a global health issue that causes a high burden in morbidity and mortality. 
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates both viral hepatitis B and C to cause 1.1 million deaths every year with 1 person dying every 30 seconds and 3.0 million new infections occurring every year.
Consequently, prevention and treatment strategies have to be implemented by all countries to alleviate hepatitis global burden and eliminate hepatitis B and C by the year 2030.