The fight against hepatitis cannot wait, it is essential to generate coordinated multisectoral strategies that have people and communities at the center. Today more than ever it is important not to leave anyone behind, within the framework of human rights, through a vision of continuous improvement that allows the strengthening of primary health care and integrated service networks. Health promotion actions are fundamental for the empowerment and activation of people and communities, for the timely identification and treatment of people with Hepatitis C, as well as for the prevention of new infections.

We want to get to the root causes of problems that are identified...It's about how you can innovate without changing an entire system... For example, you're just changing the way you're offering testing. It doesn't cost money. It's not a big invention, it's not technological. But you can change something and have a big impact just by finding out what the root cause of a problem is.

It is revolutionary what the Hepatitis C Innovation Team (HIT) did because you're talking about a federal health care system made up of more than 150 medical centers and 1000 sites of care. How do you move this giant ship? We built a community and said these goals really are aspirational, but we believe in the field teams. We believe in their ability to be creative -- to push innovation. . . If you [only] work in [a] safe space, you’ll never find many of the genuine breakthroughs that came out of HIT.

You really need to make the steps smaller and simpler. Each step of the hepatitis C care cascade you lose people. People are too frightened, they can’t afford the bus fare, they have other commitments or can’t afford to be away from somewhere for the time.… And as that starts to be successful, we started to lift our eyes and think about how we can make this a place where there is no longer hepatitis C. Where it was just something that was a historical footnote in medical textbooks. That's a world I wanted to see and that's what drove my team and I to think about the ways we could do that.

Our organization is working every day to achieve the 2030 goals and is dedicated to reaching the unreachables and underprivileged communities. When people living with hepatitis B or C come to us, we provide them with whatever they need- whether access to care or money to purchase medicines. And we will continue to do this as a non-profit organization working for prevention and education and research on liver disease in Bangladesh.

Our major aim of the organization was to truly empower patients with information which is relevant, easily understood, and comprehensible. We realized this was important to ensure the misconceptions were reduced within our communities….I felt that I think it is important for us as young people to bring in some energy and prescribe solutions to the problems facing our community

The screening of all Egyptian people in less than one year was more than a dream. By doing this, I think our activities and our efforts were finally reached a point where we can say we have truly done something. I hope we will continue serving patients, especially those who cannot afford the costs of medical care.

I have realized that there is a way to communicate with policy makers and experts and patients to let people know the truth. It’s been step by step with people like me speaking up. It’s easy to change regulations but it takes time to change people’s minds. After 10 years of changing regulations, workplace discrimination still persists. We must now go further to educate people.

I really enjoy bringing people together who don’t usually meet, for example needle exchange, hospital, primary care and probation services. We help build trusted relationships where we can develop ways to work together. Often the solution is not expensive or hard, it’s just identifying what’s required. The answers for hepatitis C elimination sit within the community and we just need to listen for the solution.

I am delighted that we can now talk about viral hepatitis in Burundi and work towards elimination, because we did nothing before. I am proud to be one of the people with hepatitis who have helped other patients. I gave all that I had for this noble mission, and my commitment is renewed from day to day by the opportunity to eliminate viral hepatitis.

To make progress, we must address this hopelessness...I think one of the key interventions we have to design is the process of taking someone who is disengaged and engaging them in care for the things that are important to them… It isn’t as simple as writing a prescription for a certain number of pills over 8-12 week’s, it’s a process of long-term engagement and partnership.

It is not a question of economic resources or pricing of the medicines or the budget of the government. Our responsibility as physicians is to develop innovative approaches of how to solve the problem. We know the disease is curable and we can prevent cirrhosis and liver cancer. About a quarter of cirrhosis or liver cancer cases are due to HCV in Mexico.Years ago we didn’t look for hepatitis because we didn’t have the medicines, but now we must test and treat. I hope the example of what we are doing in Mexico will help the Latin American region overcome the remaining hurdles in treating HCV