Global Hepatitis Contest
Global Hepatitis Contest
Working with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine we launched a crowdsourcing challenge in early 2021 to gather stories and infographics from the public, with a focus on people living with and affected by hepatitis B, hepatitis C and hepatitis D.
Through analysis of the submissions, our aim is to identify barriers in people’s health seeking process and find culturally sensitive, locally appropriate solutions to improve health services delivery for viral hepatitis. Further, through sharing the contest submissions, we aim to spur the interest of health leadership and integrate community perspectives into the policy-making process.
Multisectoral workshops
Following the receipt of the contest submissions a series of regional and domestic multisectoral workshops will be conducted to celebrate excellent submissions, share problems and solutions and spur action.
Bangladesh – National Liver Foundation Bangladesh
The National Liver Foundation Bangladesh (NLFB) submitted two exceptional stories to the Global Hepatitis Contest, including finalist Muslima Kader Mili. We partnered with NLFB to conduct a multisectoral workshop exploring what can be done to eliminate viral hepatitis in Bangladesh.
The hybrid meeting was held at The Daily Star Centre, Dhaka, Bangladesh on 25th March 2022 and it brought together representatives from the affected community, the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, medical professionals, civil society organisations, medical students along with WHA and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
The meeting saw experts discuss the core interventions for hepatitis elimination as set out by the World Health Organization. Topics included:
· Prevention of mother to child transmission
· Injection safety and harm reduction
· Testing and vaccination
· Stigma, discrimination, myths and misconceptions and the role of media
Speakers offered interesting insight into the gains made, and the challenges that remain, with awareness and financing consistently being highlighted as critical barriers to elimination.
We were honoured to have Assistant Director, Communicable Disease Control, Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of the Peoples’ Republic of Bangladesh give closing remarks at the meeting setting out the work done by the government of Bangladesh eliminate viral hepatitis.
Watch the meeting here.
World Hepatitis Summit 2022
At the World Hepatitis Summit 2022, we partnered with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to hold a hybrid side meeting on ‘Crowdsourcing for Hepatitis Advocacy and Public Engagement’.
The main objectives of the event were to disseminate NOhep hepatitis advocacy messages identified through the global open call to a diverse global audience and to celebrate compelling civil society groups that are contributing to global efforts towards hepatitis elimination.
Two finalists from Bangladesh and Philippines gave us an insight into advocacy in and inspirations for their countries respectively. Videos from finalists from China, Congo and Argentina were also played.
For the panel discussion, we heard from high level experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO), Ministry of Health Uganda and Ministry of Health Bangladesh, who gave us insight into the role of the government in hepatitis services, how hepatitis services can be incorporated into universal health coverage and the role of the community in hepatitis elimination.
National Liver Foundation Bangladesh shared the impact of viral hepatitis in Bangladesh and we heard from a liver transplant surgeon and how his experience led to him become an advocate.
We also heard from two medical professionals, a liver transplant surgeon from India and a recent graduate on why they became advocates and why we need more medical professionals to champion elimination.
Watch the full meeting here.
African regional meeting
We brought together the 4 African finalists from the Global Hepatitis Contest, along with other stakeholders in the region to demonstrate how hepatitis is impacting people and communities in Africa and explore the role of different stakeholders in overcoming the challenges communities face.
This meeting was held as a virtual pre-meeting at the Conference on Liver Disease in Africa (COLDA) on the 8 September 2021 and it saw advocates, policy makers, medical professionals and other stakeholders in the region come together to discuss what needs to happen if we are to overcome the barriers to diagnosis. The discussion explored the impact of stigma and discrimination on the response with different suggestions for combatting this put forward. With one of our finalists a young girl from the Democratic Republic of Congo the meeting also looked at the importance of hepatitis in young people and the need to engage with young people in the response.
