Stories of the year
September
August
August focused on building on
the momentum from WHD, with
national governments announcing
commitment to elimination. Africa
launched their “Prevention, Care
and Treatment of viral hepatitis in
the African Region: Framework for
action 2016–2020”, building on the
Global Strategy and looking at ways
to effectively tackle this disease.
Fully embracing elimination, the
Honourable Prime Minister of
Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina MP,
issued a special WHD message
acknowledging the goal of the
elimination of hepatitis B and C
and expressed the government’s
commitment to reaching this
target. In Georgia the government
approved the 2016-2020 National
Strategy on Elimination of Hepatitis
C and declared that hepatitis C will
be virtually eliminated by 2020 in
Georgia. Find out more about these
commitments here.
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hep
Voice November/December 2016
The journey towards the
elimination of viral hepatitis
continued in September with
the adoption of WHO European
Regional Office’s Action Plan for
viral hepatitis. This signalled an
important step forward in Europe
as it cements the commitment
of 53 governments to effectively
tackle these diseases. Find out
more about the Action Plan here.
October
In October the Egyptian Government
made an indisputable commitment
that could take the country from
suffering from the highest hepatitis
C prevalence worldwide to virtually
hepatitis C free by 2020. At the
Egyptian Liver Day event, the
Minister of Health announced
that since the beginning of 2016,
more than 800,000 people have
been treated for hepatitis C and
the country aims to treat 1 million
patients by the end of the year. Read
more on Egypt’s commitment to
elimination here.
hep
Voice November/December 2016
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