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World J Hepatol. Jul 27, 2021; 13(7): 781-789
Published online Jul 27, 2021. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v13.i7.781
Impact of coronavirus disease 2019 on prevention and elimination strategies for hepatitis B and hepatitis C
Syed Tabish Rehman, Hareem Rehman, Shahab Abid
Syed Tabish Rehman, Hareem Rehman, Shahab Abid, Department of Medicine, The Aga Khan University, Karachi 74800, Pakistan
Author contributions: Rehman ST performed the majority of the writing, prepared the figures and did literature search; Rehman H performed majority of literature search a substantial amount of writing; Abid S designed the outline of the manuscript and did the final formatting.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no conflict of interest associated with any of the authors who contributed their efforts to this manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Shahab Abid, MBBS, PhD, Professor, Department of Medicine, The Aga Khan University, Stadium Road, PO Box 3500, Karachi 74800, Pakistan. shahab.abid@aku.edu
Received: February 22, 2021
Peer-review started: February 22, 2021
First decision: May 3, 2021
Revised: May 9, 2021
Accepted: June 23, 2021
Article in press: June 23, 2021
Published online: July 27, 2021
Processing time: 150 Days and 16.6 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: There has been a multi-fold impact of the pandemic on viral hepatitis elimination strategies. Due to supply chain disruptions, hepatitis B virus vaccination campaigns have been halted. Increased preference for home deliveries, poor antenatal care, and unavailability of at-birth hepatitis B virus vaccine has increased the risk of vertical transmission. With needle-sharing activities on the rise and closure of harm reduction centers, the spread of blood-borne infections including the hepatitis C virus has risen. Hospitals are either being avoided due to the fear of contracting severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 or are being converted into coronavirus treatment wards, resulting in poor management of patients.