Editorial: World Hepatitis Day 2024: advancing hepatitis elimination, public health strategies and innovations

Viral hepatitis remains a major global health challenge, causing over one million deaths each year.Although hepatitis B vaccination and curative treatments for hepatitis C have improved outcomes, efforts to eliminate the disease remain inconsistent across regions. The World Health Organization (WHO) has set a goal to eliminate viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030 [1]. However, the path to this goal is complicated by new and overlapping causes of liver injury, such as metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) [2] and sepsis-related liver injury (SRLI) [3], which can accelerate disease progression and make diagnosis more difficult. These overlapping causes emphasize the importance of integrated liver health strategies that combine prevention, awareness, metabolic risk reduction, and better diagnostics to achieve elimination targets.This Topic Research World Hepatitis Day 2024 provides a timely opportunity to assess global efforts, identify ongoing gaps, and build momentum toward the WHO's target. Sadly, the burden of hepatitis disproportionately affects low-and middle-income countries, where limited resources, weaker health systems, and socioeconomic inequalities restrict access to prevention, screening, and treatment. Stigma, migration patterns, and social determinants of health further complicate epidemiological trends and hinder engagement with care. This collection includes original articles, meta-analyses, study protocols, and viewpoints from various regions and disciplines, all focused on a central theme: the urgent need to translate epidemiological findings, preventive strategies, and innovative tools into tangible progress toward the eradication of hepatitis. We invite our readers to explore this compilation, which covers epidemiology, awareness, immune/vaccination response, innovation, and regional experiences, all aligned with the WHO's elimination goals. Despite progress worldwide, the fight against hepatitis faces ongoing, region-specific challenges.In China, hepatitis elimination strategies are fragmented and unfocused, increasing the risk of non-