WHO Regional Office for Europe webinar "Bringing hepatitis care closer to you.

Date :July 29,2022.

Webinar participants:

- Nicole Seguy, Rachael Halford, World Hepatitis Alliance;

- Rui Tato Marinho, Chair, National Viral Hepatitis Programme (Portugal)

-Gayane Ghukasyan, WHO Country Office, Armenia;

- Philippa Easterbrook, WHO Headquarters;

- Marcelo Naveira, WHO HIE; Maia Tsereteli, National Institutes of Health.

- Maia Tsereteli, National Center for Disease Control and Public Health, Georgia

- Shakhlo Sadirova, National Institute of Virology, Uzbekistan

- Giorgi Kuchukhidze, WHO ERB;

- Jessica Hicks, World Hepatitis Alliance

  - Sandra Dudareva, Robert Koch Institute (Germany)

- Soudeh Ehsani, WHO ERB;

Overall purpose of the event

This open online webinar aims to highlight regional progress and achievements since the adoption of the Action Plan and introduce instruments for the way forward in the health sector response to viral hepatitis, including new recommendations for hepatitis C simplified service delivery, diagnosis and treatment; a training curriculum for simplified case management of hepatitis C for non-specialists adapted to regional context; an online repository for good practices; and COVIMPACT-Hepatitis, a project designed and led by Robert Koch Institute in Scope & purpose Page 2 collaboration with the WHO Regional Office for Europe, fully dedicated to hepatitis elimination in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic in Europe and Central Asia.

Objectives

1. Present key messages and new recommendations on simplified service delivery, diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C.
2. Introduce the planned training curriculum for hepatitis C case management for nonspecialists.
3. Share preliminary results of the implementation of COVIMPACT-Hepatitis and WHO Virtual Library.

Brief description

Viral hepatitis is a public health challenge with important disease burden in the WHO European Region. Estimates indicate 14 million people are living with chronic hepatitis B virus infection and 12 million are living with chronic hepatitis C virus infection in the WHO European Region – resulting in 107 000 people dying from viral hepatitis-related deaths in the Region every year. The adoption of the Action Plan for the Health Sector Response to Viral Hepatitis in the WHO European Region at the 66th session of WHO Regional Committee for Europe (resolution EUR/RC66/R10), which in turn, adapted the Global Health Sector Strategies on Viral Hepatitis to the regional context, sought to accelerate public health policies in response to viral hepatitis – many Member States developed national plans and strategies to eliminate viral hepatitis. The Action Plan proposed milestones for 2018 and targets for 2020 to achieve elimination of viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030 and since its advent, has served as a ground for improved response in many Member States.

Over thirty Member States in the WHO European Region have developed and implemented national viral hepatitis elimination strategies and plans.

The webinar covered recent regional developments, new recommendations on simplified service provision, diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C including in children and adolescents, a new training program on simplified social case management for non-specialists, examples of decentralized and integrated care, as well as a session on research and innovation, which will present results from the “COVIMPACT Hepatitis” Project of the Robert Koch Institute and WHO Virtual Library.

 At the end of the webinar, questions were asked about the presentations of interest and each participant answered his or her own question.