{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,29]],"date-time":"2026-07-29T09:01:31Z","timestamp":1785315691965,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":48,"publisher":"F1000 Research Ltd","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,30]],"date-time":"2026-06-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1782777600000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["wellcomeopenresearch.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Wellcome Open Res"],"abstract":"<ns5:p>Viral hepatitis poses a major individual and public health problem among vulnerable migrant and refugee populations in Europe. Migrants constitute a \u2018key population\u2019 for viral hepatitis elimination, and often face structural and systemic challenges, including limited healthcare access, legal barriers, stigmatization and discrimination. Their vulnerable position, together with documented high prevalence of chronic hepatitis B, C, and D in their countries of origin, place them at particularly high risk of poor health outcomes related to viral hepatitis infection. The Viral Hepatitis Prevention Board (VHPB) convened a multidisciplinary group of experts to discuss barriers to viral hepatitis prevention, diagnosis, and care in migrant populations. This open letter collates outputs from this group, focusing on important barriers and challenges to viral hepatitis prevention, screening and linkage to care for vulnerable migrant populations. It further explores strategies to improve viral hepatitis healthcare for migrants, including equitable access, expanded vaccination and screening, culturally tailored awareness campaigns, community co-production of interventions, and strengthened health systems. It also underlines the importance of sustained policy recommendations, integrating viral hepatitis services into broader health frameworks, promoting international collaboration, and leveraging innovative solutions like digital health records and community-based point-of-care testing or home sampling. Despite commitments to eliminate viral hepatitis by 2030, progress remains slow, with migrants disproportionately affected in the region. Urgent action is needed to close healthcare gaps, address inequities, ensure sustained funding, and implement coordinated efforts to protect vulnerable populations and achieve the elimination goals.<\/ns5:p>","DOI":"10.12688\/wellcomeopenres.26976.1","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,30]],"date-time":"2026-06-30T12:24:15Z","timestamp":1782822255000},"page":"409","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.12688\/wellcomeopenres.crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Viral hepatitis among vulnerable migrant and refugee populations in Europe - an expert perspective from the Viral Hepatitis Prevention Board"],"prefix":"10.12688","volume":"11","author":[{"given":"Thomas","family":"Vanwolleghem","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Edegem Flanders 2650 Universitair Ziekenhuis Antwerpen"},{"name":"Viral Hepatitis Research Group, Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Pediatrics Wilrijk 2610 University of Antwerp"},{"name":"Viral 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VAXINFECTIO Edegem 2650 University of Antwerp"},{"name":"Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology Berlin Robert Koch Institute"},{"name":"Institute of Public Health Riga R\u012bga Stradi\u0146\u0161 University"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"David","family":"FitzSimons","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Viral Hepatitis Prevention Board, Centre for the Evaluation of Vaccination (CEV), VAXINFECTIO Edegem 2650 University of Antwerp"},{"name":"London Independent Researcher"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Greet","family":"Hendrickx","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Viral Hepatitis Prevention Board, Centre for the Evaluation of Vaccination (CEV), VAXINFECTIO Edegem 2650 University of Antwerp"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sakshi","family":"Jindal","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Viral Hepatitis Prevention Board, Centre for the Evaluation of Vaccination (CEV), VAXINFECTIO Edegem 2650 University of Antwerp"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sema","family":"Mandal","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Viral Hepatitis Prevention Board, Centre for the Evaluation of Vaccination (CEV), VAXINFECTIO Edegem 2650 University of Antwerp"},{"name":"London UK Health Security Agency"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Elisa","family":"Martr\u00f3","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Microbiology Department, Northern Metropolitan Clinical Laboratory Barcelona Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute and Hospital"},{"name":"Consortium for Biomedical Research in Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP) Madrid Instituto de Salud Carlos III"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4036-4269","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Philippa C","family":"Matthews","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Infection and Immunity London England University College London"},{"name":"London The Francis Crick Institute"},{"name":"Department of Infectious Diseases London University College London Hospital"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Manish","family":"Pareek","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Public Health and Epidemiology Leicester University of Leicester"},{"name":"Leicester NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre"},{"name":"Development Centre for Population Health Leicester University of Leicester"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Camila A","family":"Picchio","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"ISGlobal Barcelona Barcelona Institute for Global Health"},{"name":"Geneva World Hepatitis Alliance"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Pierre","family":"Van 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PCM receives funding from the Francis Crick Institute (MRC, Wellcome and Cancer Research UK, ref CC2223) and from the University College London NIHR Biomedical Research Centre. MP acknowledges funding from the NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre and NIHR Applied Research Collaboration East Midlands (ARC EM). TV is funded by a Senior Clinical Investigator grant from the FWO [grant number 18B2826N]. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. The Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP) has received support from the CERCA Program\/Generalitat de Catalunya.  CAP acknowledges institutional support to ISGlobal from grant CEX2023-0001290-S, funded by MCIN\/AEI\/10.13039\/501100011033, and the Generalitat de Catalunya, through the CERCA Program. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.","order":2,"name":"grant-information","label":"Grant Information"},{"value":"This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.","order":0,"name":"copyright-info","label":"Copyright"}]}}