In February, the Coalition launched the First Annual Hepatitis Elimination Video Contest, and we are thrilled to now announce the winners! The winning submissions were selected for their thorough reflection of the category themes, the powerful impact of their messages, the creativity of their storytelling, and masterful videography and editing work. 

We received a number of incredible submissions, and we thank all who participated. These videos do a wonderful job showing the many elements of successful hepatitis elimination campaigns.

Grand prize

Connecting with Care Ahtahkakoop

By the International Network on Hepatitis in Substance Users (INHSU)

From the producers: “Connecting with Care Ahtahkakoop tells the story of Ahtahkakoop, a small indigenous community located in the northern Canadian province of Saskatchewan that has some of the highest hepatitis C and HIV co-infection rates in the country. The film follows the Ahtahkakoop Health Centre's Know Your Status program to document key aspects of the community-based Indigenous model of care that has been so successful in treating hepatitis C among the community.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Watch here: https://youtu.be/5NSkXNJh-dE

Category 1: Political and civil support

First place: Connecting with Care South Africa

By the International Network on Hepatitis in Substance Users (INHSU)

From the producers: “Connecting with Care South Africa explores the daily challenges and barriers for people who inject drugs in accessing appropriate hard reduction and health care services including testing and treatment for hepatitis C. The film presents a diverse range of perspectives including community members, peer workers, community advocates, health professionals, and academics and aims to educate audiences across the country on the importance of overcoming stigma and creating appropriate healthcare services for people who inject drugs.”

 

 

 

 

 

Second place (tie): Don't Live in Doubt - Treatment for Hepatitis C in Leeds

By Forward Leeds and Leeds City Council, United Kingdom

Watch here: https://youtu.be/rxvHFaZyHII

From the producers: “This film was created as a part of the Don't Live in Doubt campaign in Leeds in the UK. It was created as a collaboration between Leeds Council and Forward Leeds, the city's alcohol and drug service. The aim is to try to get encourage people to come forward to get tested and then treated. It emphasizes the improvements in treatment that have taken place in the UK over the last couple of years. It uses the voices of people from Leeds who have successfully been cleared of hepatitis C to tell their own story over a backdrop of scenes of the city. The video was launched online in August 2019 As well as online the film has been screening on the big public screen in Millennium Square in the city since December.”

Watch here: https://youtu.be/Bca92_v1-60

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second place (tie): Community Hepatitis Awareness

By Great Lakes Peace Center, Uganda

From the producers: “The video is about efforts towards hepatitis elimination, advocacy and awareness in Kasese-Southwestern, Uganda. Featured is a local council leader during a counseling session, a security officer receiving vaccination, a cultural leader zobindo twazane receiving vaccination, and village health teams implementing a hepatitis awareness session.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second place (tie): Self-Advocating for Hepatitis

By the World Hepatitis Alliance, in partnership with Hazel Heal, New Zealand

From the producers: “Hazel Heal from New Zealand sat down with the World Hepatitis Alliance to speak about her work advocating for medical professionals to do more for viral hepatitis. Her own lived experience motivates her to share the experience she had with hepatitis C which nearly claimed her life.”

 

Watch the full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOB-esBFs9w&list=PLUsETSWRR7sb-sVZAA3dT8piX54oVdnRa&index=2 (Shorter clip submitted to the Contest)

 

Category 2: Data to plan and evaluate programs

No entries to this category.

Category 3: Appropriate and feasible interventions

First place: Let’s treat Hepatitis C

By Alliance for Public Health, Ukraine

From the producers: “We are happy to present video blog of Anton Basenko, activist of the community of people who use drugs in Ukraine and globally, who had been waiting for Hepatitis C treatment for over 13 years and got a great chance to receive free therapy with innovative drugs within the Alliance treatment program. Anton will share his fairs before starting the therapy, will tell about the choice of drugs, side effects and other interesting facts in 6 episodes. Please turn on the english subtitles in the bottom right corner of the video screen. The program of Hepatitis C treatment with direct-acting antivirals implemented by Alliance since 2015 already allowed more than 1,200 people get access to free treatment. Among those, who have completed their therapy courses, treatment success rate is 93%. The efforts of Alliance allowed bringing the price for sofosbuvir down to USD 300 per vial; besides, sofosbuvir and other direct-acting antivirals were registered in Ukraine, included into the treatment protocol as well as into the list of drugs procured with state and local budget funds. In 2017, Alliance for the first time in Ukraine will be using an interferon-free treatment regimen (sofosbuvir/ledipasvir) for patients with hepatitis C.” 

The fifth video in the blog series was the one apart of the contest. This video features Anton discussing the end of treatment and the process for verifying being cured.

Watch here: http://aph.org.ua/en/resources/useful-information-for-partner-ngos/

 

Second place (tie): The Story of the ENHANCE Project

By the Digestive Disease Research Institute, University of Tehran, Iran and the Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales, Australia

From the producers: “A story of two men from different walks of life in Iran who learn about their hepatitis C status and are able to successfully treat the disease thanks to new Direct-Acting Antiviral medication. The testing and treatment was made available through the new ENHANCE pilot project led by Iranian-Australian researcher Dr. Maryam Alavi. The project is part of a collaboration between Digestive Disease Research Institute at the University of Tehran and The Kirby Institute from the University of New South Wales.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second place (tie): End Hep C SF - Community Leads the Way

By End Hep C SF, United States 

From the producers: “April 2019. In San Francisco, USA, our most valued asset in the fight to eliminate HCV are the End Hep C SF community members who have been cured themselves and go on to help connect their friends and families to HCV testing and treatment. End Hep C SF honors and thanks these community members, and shares some of their stories and perspectives here.”

Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rnueh-jOgT8&feature=youtu.be

Category 4: Sustainable financing 

First place: The Mongolia Model

By the World Hepatitis Alliance, in partnership with the Onom Foundation, Mongolia

From the producers: “Mongolia has one of the highest burdens of liver cancer in the world mainly due to hepatitis. To combat this the Onom Foundation mobilised patients to gain cross party support for an elimination plan funded by the government of Mongolia. ND, Chair of the Onom Foundation explains how this happened.”

Watch the full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJB7jkpP4Wc&list=PLUsETSWRR7sb-sVZAA3dT8piX54oVdnRa&index=5 (Shorter clip submitted to the Contest)

 

Category 5: Participation in operational research

First place: Kombi Clinic - Its the end of the road for Hep C

By the Kombi Clinic, Australia

From the producers: “Kombi Clinic is a mobile outreach Hepatitis C clinic, operating in Brisbane, Australia. Kombi Clinic brings everything to the patient to provide an all inclusive clinic. Rather than making patients navigate the complex health system we bring everything to them. Screening bloods and Fibroscans + doctors are able to diagnosis and follow up with patients where they are. At follow up appointments, patients requiring treatment have script written on the spot, they are able to then use this at their local community pharmacy. Kombi clinic visits locations with high prevalence of people who have/had inject drugs and also people that have poor access to health care. We turn up to venues such as Homeless shelters, drop in centers, drug addiction clinics and rough sleeping locations. Kombi clinic also take junior doctors and medical student out to teach them the importance of hep C medicine and also about treating an under served population. This Video feature the 4 members of the Kombi Clinic as well as a medical student that came out with us. The Video was recorded in sept 2019 and it shows us going out on a usual mobile clinic to a homeless drop in service.”

Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYNONgw0IWQ

 

 

 

 

Honorable Mentions

Connecting with Care Montreal

By The International Network on Hepatitis in Substance Users (INHSU)

From the producers: “Connecting with Care Montreal explores how two local community organisations Centre Sida-Amitié and Dopamine have teamed up to share experiences and approaches to treating hepatitis C. Through learning and adaptation, the two organisations have been able to develop their own models of care to meet the unique needs of their different communities.”

Watch here: https://www.inhsu.org/connecting-with-care/montreal/

 

Connecting with Care Toronto

By The International Network on Hepatitis in Substance Users (INHSU)

From the producers: “Connecting with Care Toronto explores the Toronto HepC Program to understand what the meaningful involvement of people with lived experience in HCV care delivery looks like.”

Watch here: https://www.inhsu.org/connecting-with-care/toronto/

 

Celebration of World Hepatitis Day 2016

By The Association Pour La Lute Contre Les Hepatites Virales “ALHV”, Burundi

From the producers: “As part of the celebration of World Day, we did a screening activity for media personnel in order to involve them in the fight against viral hepatitis. In collaboration with the program in charge of viral hepatitis, we screened the staff of the National Radio and Television of Burundi in Bujumbura, Burundi. Presented by the President of the Association”

 

Celebration of World Hepatitis Day 2018: Screening of Isanganiro Radio Staff 

By The Association Pour La Lute Contre Les Hepatites Virales “ALHV”, Burundi

From the producers:“The activity was carried out by the association for the fight against hepatitis in collaboration with the director of the Radio ISANGANIRO in Bujumbura, Burundi. All radio staff were screened and the results revealed that 6% were carriers.”

 

 

2nd Hepatitis Summit, 2018 and capacity training workshop for healthcare providers

By the Hepatitis Alliance of Ghana

From the authors: “This video is on the 2nd hepatitis summit in 2018 and a workshop organised by the Hepatitis Alliance of Ghana in Accra. Participants shared their experiences at the workshop.”

 

 

 

Hepatitis Alliance of Ghana Community Screening

By the Hepatitis Alliance of Ghana

From the producers: “This video is about a hepatitis awareness campaign at LEKMA municipality, Accra, 2019. Healthcare providers including Doctors, Nurses, and laboratory technologists supported this campaign.”

 

 

Barriers We Find to Access to Hepatitis C Treatment

By the IFARMA Foundation

From the producers: “This video was recorded in December 2018 by the social leaders linked to Regálate Un Minuto Campaign (Give yourself a minute) in their own regions where they do the work with communities. They describe the situation and barriers found in 4 regions of Colombia for accessing to Hepatitis C treatment. Who are they? María Cecilia Verutti is a social leader who works with Semillas del Foundation (FUNSEC) in the south of the country. She says that communities and government authorities do not have information about Hepatitis C. They do not know about prevention practices. She thinks it is necessary to continue bringing information on HCV to the community, health workers and government authorities. Juan Carlos Archila is working with Censurados Foundation in Cucuta, the main city on the northeast side of the country, in the border with Venezuela where the public health situation is critical because of migration movements from Venezuelan population. He says there is no opportunities to the diagnosis of Hepatitis C and either to access treatment. He asks to the goverment authorities more support to attend these needs. Onedys Ángulo woks with Amigos por la Vida Foundation (FUDAVIDA) in Arjona, a little city close to Cartagena in the north of Colombia (Caribe). She relates that FUDAVIDA has developed workshops with communities to talk about HCV and prevention but people do not have access to the diagnosis and treatment. Angélica Jiménez lives in Pereira, one of the main cities on the Colombian west (coffee region). Angélica is part of Temeride Corporation work team, a community social organization that works with people who injected drugs (PWID) and homeless. She says in that region people do not have access to diagnosis on HCV. Temeride Corporation has diagnosed some PWID and homeless. This work shows more than 50% is reactive to HCV. However, government authorities think the homeless are not good candidates for treatment.”

 

 

 

Photo credit on home page: Charles Adjei, Hepatitis Alliance of Ghana