The definition and calculation of the targets of “the elimination of viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030” should be concise and unified

In May 2016, the World Health Assembly endorsed the Global Health Sector Strategy (GHSS) on viral hepatitis 2016–2021, calling for the elimination of viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030. Using the 2015 data as the baseline, the main targets are to reduce annual new infections and deaths by 90% and 65%, respectively, and to increase the diagnosis rate and the treatment rate of eligible people to 90% and 80%, respectively. However, the definitions and calculations of the above targets are not standardized, and there are inconsistencies between different literatures, affecting the accuracy and consistency of the results. The targets mainly focus on chronic HBV and HCV infections. According to the relevant literatures, it is speculated that the base number for new cases of chronic HBV and HCV infections in 2015 should be 3.5 to 5.15 million, rather than 6 to 10 million, with new HBV and HCV infections being 1.7 to 3.4 million and 1.75 million, respectively. From the perspectives of intuition, simplicity, and habit, the diagnosis rate and treatment rate are suitable for being expressed as "rate", but annual new infections (rate) and deaths (rate) should be expressed as "number" or "case". The method of calculating the treatment rate also needs to be unified. Different countries/regions have different treatment indications, and different authors have different understandings, which affects the comparability of treatment rates.