hepVoice Vol.11 | Page 8

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. 8 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 9