hepVoice Vol 32 January 2019 | Page 2

note from our president Happy New Year! 2019 marks another pivotal year for the World Hepatitis Alliance. Our long-time CEO, Raquel Peck, has moved into an advisory role at WHA; and we will be hiring her replacement in the first quarter of the year. While it is impossible to truly replace Raquel, we are conducting interviews this month and hope to have the new CEO on board soon. Our Executive Board will also see changes as we will welcome two new board members: Rachel Halford from the EURO region and Patricia Vélez-Möller from the PAHO region. Our SEARO board member, RP Shanmugam was re-elected for a second term. One of our most exciting new initiatives will launch in the coming weeks- our ‘Find the Missing Millions’ in-country advocacy program. This program will support 5 WHA members from different countries to develop and implement effective action plans to increase testing and diagnosis rates in their countries. Applications for this program will come out within the next few weeks and we expect a high level of interest. Don’t miss out - receive hepVoice straight to your inbox! Finally, as always, this month we’ve got some great features in hepVoice. We hope you enjoy it and please remember to share your contributions to help make the magazine work for you. We wish you all the best for a happy and healthy year and great progress toward the elimination of viral hepatitis. Michael Ninburg President contents Regulars Stay connected www.worldhepatitisalliance.org 4 Hep headlines [email protected] 5 For the diary www.facebook.com/worldhepalliance Features 6 New Zealand to get fully funded treatment for all 8 Meet the WHA Board 10 Find the missing millions in action 12 Wall of Stories: Evelyn’s Story @Hep_Alliance @worldhepatitisalliance Want to contribute? We welcome your contributions so please get in touch at [email protected] to have your news and stories included in future issues and feel free to share this magazine with your network The World Hepatitis Day 2018 Global Summary report is out now. The report features details of the activities undertaken across the world which can be used as a source of inspiration when planning your WHD2019 activities. See the report at www.worldhepatitisalliance.org/whd-2018-global-summary 2 hep Voice JANUARY 2019 hep Voice JANUARY 2019 3