Year in Review: Coalition highlights from 2020

The Coalition for Global Hepatitis Elimination
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted all aspects of society, including efforts to combat viral hepatitis. Nonetheless, the Coalition remained committed to supporting the work of hepatitis elimination programs either by providing resources to inform the continuation of hepatitis services under changing conditions or by spearheading initiatives to keep hepatitis elimination on national and global health agenda. With your partnership, below are the some of the Coalition’s highlights from 2020.
January
- In partnership with Clinical Liver Disease (CLD), a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease, the Coalition launched “Innovations in Hepatitis Elimination” to highlight real-world efforts advancing hepatitis B and C elimination globally.
- National and subnational program began to manage their content directly on www.globalhep.org .
February
- The HEAT project (Hep Evaluations to Amplify Testing and Treatment Project) was introduced to support epidemiological and laboratory capacity assessments that can inform the development of improved hepatitis testing strategies. The project is underway in Ghana, Vietnam, and Moldova
March
- Coalition authors presented two abstracts on global and regional HBV and HCV mortality at the Asia Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver (APASL) conference in Bali, Indonesia in March 2019; Coalition partners provided a tour of Bali Peduli, a clinic in Indonesia making HBV/HCV care accessible to vulnerable populations
- In response to the emerging COVID-19 pandemic, a synthesis of the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 infection and liver disease was developed and added to the Coalition evidence base.
April
- The results of the systematic c review of global, regional, national, and sub-national action plans on hepatitis B and C control and elimination were made available on the Coalition website.
- Winners of the first annual Hepatitis Elimination Video Contest were announced with the Grand Prize going to the “Connecting with Care Ahtahkakoop” by the International Network on Hepatitis in Substance Users (INHSU), Saskatchewan Canada.
May
- Dr. Ward served as co-editor of a special eight-article series on COVID-19 in Clinical Liver Disease and authors an COVID-19 pandemic update and a synthesis of AASLD, EASL and APASL liver disease care during the COVID-19 pandemic. .
June
- Data dashboards for 190+ countries were updated and expanded. Additional functionalities on the dashboards allow users to view a wider range of epidemiological, program monitoring, and policy indicators, to view the source of all data, and to download all data tables and graphs.
- US-based public health organizations joined with the Coalition to call for U.S. support of the World Health Organization.
- The Coalition coordinated the production of a video to highlight the partnerships making HCV testing and treatment in drug treatment centers a reality in the state of Georgia, United States.
July
- The first annual report to mark the Coalition’s one-year anniversary was released.
- The 2020 Elimination Champions in honor of World Hepatitis Day were recognized. The six individuals recognized for their incredible contributions to hepatitis elimination include Dr. Brian Conway, Canada, Vancouver Infectious Disease Clinic; Dr. David Kershenobich, Mexico, National Autonomous University of México, Mr. Dieudonne Hakizimana, Burundi, Association pour lutte contre les hepatitis virales “ALHV”, Mr. Kenneth Kabagambe, Uganda, National Organization of People Living with Hepatitis B, Mrs. Jo de Lisle, New Zealand, HealthShare Midland Integrated Hepatitis C Service, and Mrs. Linda Zhang, China, Stanford Center at Peking University
- The Coalition co-hosted the Asia Pacific Summit on “Finding the Missing Millions” on World Hepatitis Day. See the full list of World Hepatitis Day events here.
- The Coalition’s Interim Report on progress towards Hepatitis Elimination was released.
August
- A global survey of providers to understand the impact of COVID on hepatitis prevention, care and treatment was released.
September
- The Task Force for Global Health, the Coalition home organization, and PAHO announced a partnership to integrate disease elimination initiatives in the Americas with hepatitis elimination a major focus
- The Coalition convened an UN General Assembly side event on “Scaling Up Testing for COVID and Hepatitis Regional Perspectives”. This was the first educational event in the Hep Test webinar series.
- An article in the Hong Kong Medical Diaries on the origins of the Coalition from public-private partnerships in Hong Kong and the mission of the Coalition today was published in the Hong Kong Medical Diaries.
October
- To honor the Nobel Prize, the Coalition published a call to action in the Lancet for the philanthropic community to mobilize the resources needed for hepatitis elimination.
- The Coalition participated in the WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Committee on HIV and Viral Hepatitis (STAC-HIVHEP) and STI Partners 28-30 October 2020.
- The Coalition hosted the third author interview in the Clinical Liver Disease, “Innovations in Hepatitis Elimination”. This month’s article was “Working Toward Elimination of Hepatitis C: The Kentucky Hepatitis Academic Mentorship Program.” For the interview, Dr. Ward spoke with Dr. Cave of the University of Louisville and Dr. Judith Feinberg of the University of West Virginia.
- In an AASLD webinar, the Coalition presented the impact of the COVID-19 response on hepatitis elimination
November
- The Coalition provided five presentations for the AASLD Liver Meeting regarding the global burden of disease 2019 country-level HBV as well as HCV mortality trends, global and US scale-up of HCV testing, HCV retreatment in resource constrained settings, and study on HCV treatment among PWID and COVID-19 prevention.
- Coalition provides perspectives on global hepatitis elimination for the launch of the Japan Hep Elimination Project.
- Coalition launches Technical Assistance Help Desk.
- Coalition participates in WHO Meeting on the Validation of Elimination of Viral Hepatitis as a Public Health Threat
December
- The second Hep Test webinar, “A Global Tour of Options for Scaling-Up HCV Testing to Reach Elimination Goals,” was convened with presentations on HCV testing from Egypt, Georgia, Mexico, Rwanda, and Vietnam.
- The Coalition led the organization of the International Viral Hepatitis Elimination Meeting
- The Coalition participated in the WPRO Expert Review Panel of Hepatitis B Control
- The Coalition Executive Board and Technical Advisory Board held meetings.
Thank you to all our partners for contributing to these successes in 2020. We look forward to working with you in 2020 to continue to make progress towards hepatitis elimination!