The World Health Organisation (WHO) says over 354 million people worldwide are living with chronic Hepatitis virus.

In a statement published on its official website on Wednesday to mark World Hepatitis day 2021, the global health body disclosed that over 8,000 fresh infections of Hepatitis B and C are recorded on a daily bases with over one million yearly deaths recorded from advanced liver disease and cancer.

World Hepatitis Day is marked on July 28 every year.

The global health body said that priority intervention remained inaccessible to most severely affected population and those at high risk in many countries.

“Over 354 million people worldwide live with chronic hepatitis; over 8000 new infections of hepatitis B and C occur every day, and more than one million deaths from advanced liver disease and liver cancer occur every year,” WHO in the statement said.

“In far too many countries, priority interventions remain inaccessible to the populations most severely affected or at higher risk,” it added.

The global health body further blamed restrictions caused by the outbreak of COVID-19 for the non-delivery of core services to tackle the virus.

It further called on countries to work together to eliminate viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030.

In a separate tweet to mark world Hepatitis day 2021, the United Nations said that almost 90 per cent of persons living with the Hepatitis viruses are unaware that they have the virus, calling on countries to expand testing and treatment to save lives.

Hepatitis is an inflammatory condition of the liver commonly caused by a viral infection