Where in the world...
World Hepatitis Alliance member activities
Special Session of the General
Assembly on Drugs: UNGASS 2016
New York, United States
Following the annual meeting of
the Commission on Narcotic Drugs
in Vienna in March, the United
Nations General Assembly held a
Special Session (UNGASS) in New
York in April to discuss the global
drug policy. The meeting showed
that a number of countries remain
opposed to renegotiating the three
global treaties underpinning the
policy. The reality is that drug policy
has been much more driven by
the law enforcement agenda. This
is not helpful to our attempts to
ensure greatly increased use of harm
reduction measures to cut the rate
of new hepatitis infections amongst
people who use drugs.
The UNGASS outcomes document
showed some progress towards a
more health-oriented approach but
only some. Knowing that this was
likely and because hepatitis really
did not feature at all in the first
draft of the outcomes document,
our very limited aim for UNGASS
was to ensure that, whenever HIV
was mentioned, then so was viral
hepatitis. To this end we wrote to
key Ministries of Health and made
a personal intervention with this
request at the WHO Executive
Board meeting in January. Happily,
countries listened to us and viral
hepatitis has been included in
the agreed final document, as we
requested.
WHA Member updates
from around the world
China
Inno Community Development
Organisation (Inno), a WHA member
group in China, has pioneered a new
way to reach and create awareness
amongst recovering drug users in
China.
Approximately 30% of drug users
are infected with hepatitis C, of
which 70% are unaware of the risks
associated with unsterilized needles
and the co-infection between HIV
and hepatitis. To combat this lack of
awareness, INNO, in collaboration
with community groups, have
developed a 9 month programme
which provides health and emotional
support to recovering drug-users.
Group sessions take place once a
month and as part of these sessions
they have created a game on the
education of hepatitis prevention.
Already, Inno has seen an increase
in the knowledge of hepatitis
amongst recovering drug users and a
reduction in risky behaviours.
We love to highlight the great work of our members, so get in touch
with updates on your national activities.
12
hep
Voice April 2016
hepVoice
April 2016 13