Minnesota Department of Health launches state’s first Viral Hepatitis Elimination Plan

News Release
April 9, 2026

Contact information

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) published its first-ever Viral Hepatitis Elimination Plan, outlining more than 100 actions aimed at preventing, diagnosing, treating and responding to viral hepatitis A, B and C.  

“Elimination,” as defined by the World Health Organization, does not mean zero cases of hepatitis but rather a 90% decrease in new infections and a 65% decrease in deaths. This plan aims to reach these milestones by 2030.

Viral hepatitis continues to be a notable public health issue in Minnesota. Hepatitis A causes short-term illness, but it can lead to hospitalization or even death. Hepatitis B and hepatitis C can cause lifelong disease, leading to long-term outcomes like liver cancer, liver failure and death.  

“Preventing and treating viral hepatitis is essential to protecting the long-term health of Minnesotans across the state,” said Jessica Hancock-Allen, director of the infectious disease division at MDH. “We’re grateful to the partners who contributed to the development of the elimination plan, which represents our state’s commitment to prevent, diagnose, treat and respond to viral hepatitis.”

MDH developed the elimination plan as part of a partner coalition representing 21 agencies across Minnesota, including health care providers, community-based organizations, harm reduction service providers and the Department of Corrections. Partners met monthly for almost a year to create the plan for eliminating viral hepatitis in Minnesota. The outcome of this coalition work is an elimination plan that MDH is confident will move Minnesota toward hepatitis elimination.

The plan highlights Minnesota’s existing strengths, including high rates of disease reporting, continuing education opportunities for health care providers, opt-out testing in state correctional settings, rapid hepatitis C screening in community-based organizations who serve high-risk populations and robust perinatal hepatitis B screening and surveillance.

The plan also identifies measures to prevent new viral hepatitis infections and improve access and adherence to treatment among people currently living with viral hepatitis. Coalition members emphasized that resources supporting individual and community-level health would reduce the rate of new infections and increase treatment uptake.  

Challenges noted in the plan include connecting patients to care following an initial diagnosis, expanding hepatitis B and C treatment within primary care settings, improving access to and affordability of curative hepatitis C medications, and increasing public awareness of the necessity of treatment for improved long-term health outcomes.  

MDH has already begun coordinating with partners to implement activities outlined in the plan. The plan will be updated annually to show progress toward its stated goals.  

For more information, including prevention and Minnesota statistics, visit Hepatitis.  

-MDH-

For more information, contact:
Amy Barrett
MDH Communications
651-201-4993
Amy.Barrett@state.mn.us