HepVoice October 2019
Welcome to hepVoice. It has been an exciting couple of months for the World Hepatitis Alliance and
the global hepatitis community. In September I attended the High-Level Meeting on Universal Health
Coverage (UHC). Thanks to advocacy led by WHA viral hepatitis was included in the UHC Political
Declaration signed at the meeting. Civil society will now play a crucial role in advocating for
countries to make hepatitis elimination a cornerstone of their UHC responses.
Service integration will also be key for countries in their UHC responses. This month WHA gathered
support for an open letter to the Global Fund to urge the proactive exploration of areas in which hepatitis
programmes can be integrated with existing HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria programmes. The
letter, signed by over 800 people, was sent to the Global Fund on the eve of their replenishment
meeting in Lyon where they aimed to raise $14 billion for the fight against HIV, malaria and
tuberculosis. You can read more about our campaign on page 11.
Partnerships will be another cornerstone of UHC. Working together we can achieve more, and to that
end WHA is delighted to announce partnerships with UNITE, the global policymakers network, and
IAPAC, the organisers of Fast- Track Cities. These partnerships will help to accelerate hepatitis
elimination; you can read more about them on pages 8 and 12.
You may have noticed that the magazine has had a small makeover. Last month we asked for your
feedback on how we could improve hepVoice and I would like to thank you for all the comments that
you gave us. We have decided that we will be running the magazine in a similar format for the
remainder of 2019 whilst we make exciting changes to how you receive
hepVoice in the future as we look to make it accessible on different platforms and in different
languages. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this issue of hepVoice.
CEO Welcome
Welcome to hepVoice. It has been an exciting couple of months for the World Hepatitis Alliance and
the global hepatitis community. In September I attended the High-Level Meeting on Universal Health
Coverage (UHC). Thanks to advocacy led by WHA viral hepatitis was included in the UHC Political
Declaration signed at the meeting. Civil society will now play a crucial role in advocating for
countries to make hepatitis elimination a cornerstone of their UHC responses.
Service integration will also be key for countries in their UHC responses. This month WHA gathered
support for an open letter to the Global Fund to urge the proactive exploration of areas in which hepatitis
programmes can be integrated with existing HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria programmes. The
letter, signed by over 800 people, was sent to the Global Fund on the eve of their replenishment
meeting in Lyon where they aimed to raise $14 billion for the fight against HIV, malaria and
tuberculosis. You can read more about our campaign on page 11.
Partnerships will be another cornerstone of UHC. Working together we can achieve more, and to that
end WHA is delighted to announce partnerships with UNITE, the global policymakers network, and
IAPAC, the organisers of Fast- Track Cities. These partnerships will help to accelerate hepatitis
elimination; you can read more about them on pages 8 and 12.
You may have noticed that the magazine has had a small makeover. Last month we asked for your
feedback on how we could improve hepVoice and I would like to thank you for all the comments that
you gave us. We have decided that we will be running the magazine in a similar format for the
remainder of 2019 whilst we make exciting changes to how you receive
hepVoice in the future as we look to make it accessible on different platforms and in different
languages. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this issue of hepVoice.
HepHeadlines
Almost 100,00 people in UK unaware they are living with hepatitis
Public Health England (PHE) have announced that tens of thousands of people in the UK are unaware
they are living with hepatitis C.
Data from 2018 showed that around 143,000 people in the UK were living with the virus.
However, up to 95,600 people may be unaware they have it, preventing them from seeking treatment.
People who believe they may have been at risk of contracting hepatitis C are being advised to take
a quiz on the Hepatitis C Trust website to find out if they should be tested for
the virus. PHE is especially urging anyone who has ever injected drugs to take the quiz.
Dr Helen Harris, Senior Scientist at PHE, said, “Anyone who may be at risk of infection, in
particular those who have ever injected drugs, even if they injected only once or twice in the
past, should get tested. Given that new treatments provide a cure in around 95 per cent of those
who take them, there has never been a better time to get tested.”
Click here to read more.
Chinese Taipei (Taiwan)’s government sets target to eliminate hepatitis by 2025
The Executive Yuan (the executive branch of
the government of the Republic of China on Taiwan), has announced their goal of eliminating
hepatitis as a health threat by 2025. This is five years ahead of the World Health Organization’s
(WHO) goal.
With an average of 7,000 new hepatitis C cases every year, it is estimated that 40,000 people in
Taiwan are living with the virus.
The cure rate for hepatitis C has increased in Taiwan, and Ministry of Health and Welfare official,
Pu Ruo-fang, credits a new internal drug for the improvement. After the drug was added
to the list of National Health Insurance-covered medicine, the cure rate for the infection reached
98.5 per cent.
In total, 9,538 people were cured by this drug in 2017, and a further
20,000 people were cured after the government increased subsidies for the drug.
Click here to read more.
WHA and UNITE partner to combat viral hepatitis
The World Hepatitis Alliance
(WHA) and UNITE, the global parliamentarians network to end HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis and other
infectious diseases, have announced a new partnership at a side meeting held on Sunday 22
September, ahead of the United Nations (UN) High Level Meeting (HLM) on Universal Health Coverage
(UHC) along with UNAIDS, WHA and G20 Health Partnership.
The two organisations collaborated with other stakeholders to successfully advocate for the
inclusion of viral hepatitis within the UN Political Declaration on UHC which was adopted at the
HLM
on UHC. The President of Georgia, Salome Zourabichvili, also made specific mention of hepatitis in
her address to the HLM, highlighting Georgia’s progress towards the elimination of viral hepatitis.
“UNITE is delighted to be working with the World Hepatitis Alliance,” said UNITE Founder and
President
Dr Ricardo Baptista Leite, MD, MP. “Parliamentarians have an important role to play in hepatitis
elimination. By working together with the World Hepatitis Alliance, we empower a network of
parliamentarians to make a real difference. Our recent success in advocating for the inclusion of
viral hepatitis in the Universal Health Coverage Political Declaration is a great start to our
partnership.”
World Hepatitis Alliance CEO, Cary James, added: “This partnership with UNITE will help us to work
with policy makers at the highest levels to make a real difference. We will also work to ensure
that policy makers and civil
society have the tools and knowledge to have an effective relationship.
In doing so we can help strengthen health systems and make sure that the patient voice is
represented at all levels of health policy development.”
The two organisations have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, confirming their commitment to
working together in joint advocacy, awareness-raising, accountability
promotion, political will mobilisation and political leadership support
to achieve the elimination of viral
hepatitis by 2030.
