Examples from
around the world
Through the Find the Missing
Millions campaign, we are
highlighting best practice
and innovations in screening
and testing so that other
organisations can learn
and develop their national
activities. Each month we
profile a successful diagnosis
initiative in hepVoice. This
month, we are highlighting
the crucial role of civil society
in raising awareness of viral
hepatitis to scale-up diagnosis
and find the missing millions.
Raising awareness:
the key to finding the
missing millions
Worldwide, 290 million
people live with viral hepatitis
unaware. Despite 196 countries
making the commitment three
years ago to eliminate viral
14 hep Voice MARCH 2019
hepatitis by 2030, without
increasing efforts to find these
missing millions we will fail to
eliminate this global killer.
Last year as part of our Find the
Missing Millions programme,
we released a white paper
looking into the main barriers
to diagnosis and put forward
key recommendations to
overcoming them. The white
paper stressed the unique and
important role civil society and
the affected community have
to play in this. Civil society and
those living with viral hepatitis
bring fundamentally important
perspectives and experiences
to the table, which help the
dissemination of accurate
and reliable information and
greatly enhance strategies and
programmes.
One of the recommendations
identified is to raise awareness
of viral hepatitis. Raising
awareness combats three of
the barriers to diagnosis – the
lack of public knowledge of the
diseases, the lack of knowledge
among healthcare professionals
and wide-spread stigma and
discrimination. Through raising
awareness we can break down
these barriers collectively,
facilitating increased diagnosis.
Whilst different strategies
are required for different
populations and country
contexts, in all cases civil
society involvement is crucial.
With the view to raising
awareness, civil society
and affected community
involvement can contribute
to the delivery of stronger
awareness campaigns and
offer platforms from which
stigma and discrimination can
be effectively addressed. What’s
more, as more people living
with viral hepatitis become
aware of their diagnosis, they
and their friends and family can
raise awareness amongst their
personal networks too. Only
through bottom-up awareness-
raising efforts will we find the
missing millions.
Civil society can actively engage
in many different activities to
raise awareness of viral hepatitis
to increase diagnosis. They can
partner with other stakeholders
– be they medical professionals
or policy-makers – to advocate
for continuous medical and
professional education on viral
hepatitis, the enforcement of
anti-discrimination laws, and for
national governments to uphold
their 2016 commitments.
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Civil society can also partner
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with other stakeholders to take
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action to highlight the life-
threatening complications of
viral hepatitis.
Another approach they can
take is to find influencers
like celebrities and political
leaders who can raise even
greater awareness and
contribute to communication
and awareness-raising
campaigns by helping to
formulate culturally-specific
messaging to debunk myths,
convey a sense of urgency
and reduce stigma.
For more tips and activities
on how civil society can help
scale-up diagnosis through
raising awareness, read our
white paper.
hep Voice
MARCH 2019 15