Nigeria is among 10 countries responsible for the majority of deaths from viral hepatitis worldwide, according to a new global assessment by the World Health Organization.

The report shows that hepatitis B and C, the two most lethal forms of the disease, caused about 1.34 million deaths in a single year, while an estimated 1.8 million people were newly infected annually. Together, Bangladesh, China, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, the Philippines, South Africa and Vietnam accounted for 69 percent of all hepatitis B deaths.

Nigeria also ranks among the highest contributors to deaths from hepatitis C, alongside China, India, Pakistan, Russia and the United States. These findings underscore how a relatively small group of countries now carries a disproportionate share of the global burden.

Worldwide, about 287 million people were living with chronic hepatitis B or C infections, conditions that can silently progress for years before causing liver cirrhosis or cancer. The African region is particularly affected: it accounts for 68 percent of new hepatitis B infections, yet only 17 percent of newborns there receive the critical birth-dose vaccine that can prevent lifelong infection.

The report also identifies people who inject drugs as a key population at risk. They represent 44 percent of new hepatitis C infections, highlighting the urgent need for harm reduction services, including access to sterile injecting equipment, opioid substitution therapy and targeted testing and treatment.

Despite the grim statistics, the WHO notes that progress is possible and already visible. Since 2015, new hepatitis B infections have fallen by nearly a third, while deaths from hepatitis C have dropped by more than a tenth. Among children under five, hepatitis B prevalence has declined to 0.6 percent, with dozens of countries reaching important control milestones.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that, although eliminating viral hepatitis as a public health threat is within reach, current efforts are still too slow and uneven to meet global targets for 2030.

The agency is urging governments, particularly in high-burden countries such as Nigeria, to scale up vaccination, expand affordable testing and treatment, improve injection safety and fully integrate hepatitis services into primary healthcare.