TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan has achieved its hepatitis C elimination targets ahead of schedule and plans to apply for World Health Organization certification by year’s end.
The WHO launched its goal of eliminating viral hepatitis by 2030 in 2016, per CNA. At an international press conference Wednesday, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said Taiwan has already met the hepatitis C benchmarks.
After verification by international experts, the results will be formally announced. If approved, Taiwan would become a regional leader five years ahead of schedule, joining countries such as Iceland, Australia, and Egypt.
Taiwan was the first country to introduce universal hepatitis B vaccination for newborns in 1986, sharply reducing hepatitis B prevalence and liver cancer rates among younger generations. The hepatitis C virus was identified by the international medical community in 1989.
Taiwan launched a second major campaign against hepatitis with HCV treatment programs in 2003 and accelerated progress under a national policy framework in 2016. The government set a target of eliminating hepatitis C by the end of this year.
Health Promotion Administration Director-General Shen Ching-fen (沈靜芬) said Taiwan exceeded gold-standard benchmarks, with a diagnosis rate of 90.2% and a treatment rate of 90.6%. She added that harm-reduction measures remain robust, with an average of more than 150 sterile needles used per person who injects drugs and 100% safety rates for blood transfusions and medical injections.
Shen said Taiwan now aims to further reduce HCV incidence and hepatitis B and C mortality by 2030. The government will continue expanding screening, strengthening health education, raising public awareness, and improving access to treatment.
The public is encouraged to undergo screening early and follow up with treatment. These steps are intended to consolidate Taiwan’s gains in eliminating hepatitis C.
Taiwan’s strategy began with a “treatment-as-prevention” approach, prioritizing treatment of known patients to reduce new infections. Once physicians had treated all patients on their lists, the second phase focused on “screening to support treatment.”
Screening was expanded in 2020 to people aged 45 to 79 and further widened in 2025 to those aged 39 to 79, offering one free lifetime blood test. To date, more than 7.55 million people have been screened.
Under the National Health Insurance system, combination therapy with ribavirin and long-acting injectable interferon, introduced in 2003, had significant side effects, and only about 63,000 patients used it by 2016. New oral antivirals for hepatitis C became available in 2014, offering cure rates above 90% with minimal side effects.
Former health ministers Lin Tzou-yien (林奏延) and former National Health Insurance Administration Director-General Lee Po-chang (李伯璋) secured the drugs at roughly one-tenth of their original price. The medications were added to insurance coverage in 2017, and more than 182,000 people had received treatment as of October.
Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said Taiwan will apply for WHO certification under the name “Chinese Taipei.” The ministry’s Office of International Cooperation will actively liaise with the WHO.
Because China is a WHO member, obstruction is possible, Chuang said. He added that Taiwan will work to prevent a repeat of past cases, such as when documentation on polio eradication was sent to China.
As Taiwan is not a WHO member, there is also concern that the application could be rejected. Shen acknowledged this possibility, as the process is essentially a presentation of national achievements.
This time, international experts were involved in revising and explaining Taiwan’s national report. Regardless of whether the WHO accepts the application, she said, Taiwan has already delivered concrete results and will publish its experience in academic journals in the future.
