Taiwan on track to eliminate hepatitis C by 2025, ahead of WHO target

At the Cabinet's weekly meeting Thursday, Premier Cho Jung-tai received a Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) briefing on the progress and strategies behind Taiwan's policy goal of eliminating hepatitis C by 2025, five years in advance of the World Health Organization's (WHO) target. The premier said that the MOHW issued the Taiwan Hepatitis C Policy Guideline in response to the WHO's goal of eliminating viral hepatitis as a public health problem by 2030. The government has comprehensively addressed hepatitis C through a treatment-led approach, integrating screening and control measures via a precisely targeted public health prevention system.

Premier Cho noted that the MOHW's Health Promotion Administration has been providing government-funded hepatitis screening services since 2011, with a total of 7.34 million people screened to date. He added that the government is confident it will achieve the WHO's goal of eliminating viral hepatitis ahead of schedule by the end of 2025.

The premier further directed the MOHW to submit, as scheduled, an application for hepatitis C elimination certification to the WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific, as a step toward establishing Taiwan as a model for the international community and contributing to the government's policy vision of a "Healthy Taiwan."