Shallow Investigation: Hepatitis Delta

We just published research on hepatitis delta from Douglas Chukwu Junior:

This is a shallow investigation of hepatitis delta (“hepatitis D”). My goal was to estimate the disease burden attributable to the condition, learn about barriers to addressing the burden, and identify any promising opportunities that Coefficient Giving can fund. My investigation included a survey of the existing literature and a number of conversations with experts on hepatitis D and related matters.

While the burden of hepatitis D is highly uncertain, I used multiple approaches to estimate it, and I believe that it accounts for around 3.5 million DALYs each year.^[1] However, all variants of hepatitis are neglected, and hepatitis D is neglected even relative to the other variants; very little funding goes to address it specifically, likely because it is challenging to diagnose and difficult to treat.

There are several promising approaches that could allow for significant progress toward addressing hepatitis D, like developing better diagnostics or facilitating access to newer and more effective treatments. While I don’t think any of those approaches are strong enough for Coefficient to investigate further, other funders with different goals might find them interesting.

You can find the full report here.