28/07/2026
World Hepatitis Day: ZCLDN Calls for Urgent Action to End Hepatitis Among People Who Use and Inject Drugs
28 July 2026
As the world commemorates World Hepatitis Day 2026 under the World Health Organization (WHO) theme, "Let's Break It Down," Zimbabwe Civil Liberties and Drug Network (ZCLDN) joins the global call to remove the barriers that prevent millions of people from accessing hepatitis prevention, testing, treatment, and care. While effective vaccines, reliable diagnostics and life-saving treatments for hepatitis B and hepatitis C already exist, stigma, discrimination, criminalization and weak health systems continue to deny many people these essential services.
For more than a decade, ZCLDN has championed the health, human rights and wellbeing of people who use and inject drugs in Zimbabwe. As a community-led organization established in 2011, ZCLDN continues to advocate for evidence-based drug policy reform, harm reduction and equitable access to healthcare, ensuring that no one is left behind because of drug use.
People who use and inject drugs are among those most affected by viral hepatitis, particularly hepatitis B and hepatitis C. The sharing of contaminated injecting equipment, limited access to harm reduction services and persistent stigma significantly increase their risk of infection. Many also face HIV co-infection, which can accelerate liver disease and increase the risk of severe illness if hepatitis is left untreated. Although hepatitis B is vaccine-preventable and hepatitis C is curable, many people remain undiagnosed or untreated due to fear of discrimination, criminalization and poor access to healthcare services.
Through years of peer-led community engagement, ZCLDN has witnessed how stigma and punitive drug policies discourage people from seeking testing and treatment. These barriers not only violate the right to health but also undermine Zimbabwe's commitment to eliminating viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030. This year's theme is therefore a call to dismantle the legal, social and structural barriers that continue to exclude vulnerable communities from life-saving healthcare.
ZCLDN calls on Government of Zimbabwe, healthcare providers, development partners and civil society to integrate hepatitis prevention, testing and treatment into HIV and harm reduction programmes, expand access to hepatitis B vaccination and affordable hepatitis care, strengthen community-led harm reduction services, eliminate stigma and discrimination in healthcare settings and meaningfully involve people with lived experience of drug use in designing and implementing policies and programmes that affect them.
Students For Sensible Drug policy Zimbabwe International Drug Policy Consortium
