On this month's cover is the 2015 logo for World Hepatitis Day, celebrated every year on July 28. In 2010, the World Health Organization designated World Hepatitis Day as one of just four official disease-specific world health days (the others are AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis). About 400 million people around the globe live with viral hepatitis, a disease that kills 1.4 million people every year-approximately 4,000 a day.
The aim of World Hepatitis Day is to raise awareness of viral hepatitis-including the most common infections, hepatitis A, B, and C-so that more people learn how the disease is spread and can be vaccinated for A and B, and tested for C. Since hepatitis C is usually asymptomatic, it is especially important that those people-such as baby boomers-who may already have the virus and not know it be screened. Leading up to the official day, the World Hepatitis Alliance encourages supporters to tweet using the hashtag #4000voices to call attention to viral hepatitis and give symbolic voice to those 4,000 daily victims. The day will also be recognized with events around the world (visit http://www.worldhepatitisday.org/events to find an event near you).
To learn more about hepatitis in the United States-and the role nurses can play in its prevention and treatment-read this month's CE article, "Viral Hepatitis: New U.S. Screening Recommendations, Assessment Tools, and Treatments."-Diane Szulecki, associate editor