To mark European Testing Week from 23 to 30 November 2018, ECDC publishes its new Guidance on integrated viral hepatitis and HIV testing.

European surveillance data show a 10% decrease in newly reported hepatitis C cases between 2016 and 2017.

In order to maximise the benefits of treatment for HIV or viral hepatitis, it is critical to test and diagnose people as soon as possible in the course of the infection. ECDC supports this objective of European Testing Week.

Targeted testing is an essential element of any strategy to eliminate viral hepatitis across the countries in the European Union and European Economic Area. Some preliminary monitoring results on the response to hepatitis B and C presented around World Hepatitis Day show that diagnosing chronic infections is still a challenge in the EU/EEA.

The first report monitoring the progress towards the elimination of hepatitis B and C across European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) countries has been published by ECDC.

Approximately four in five people living with hepatitis B and three out of four people with hepatitis C infection across the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA) and the UK have not yet been diagnosed. This is a major obstacle on the way towards the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) for health in 2030 as highlighted by ECDC on occasion of World Hepatitis Day.