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Video Exclusives: Hepatitis updates from experts at ILC 2019
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In these exclusive videos from the International Liver Congress 2019, hepatology experts and liver disease advocates provide updates on the global efforts for hepatitis elimination, including both hepatitis B and hepatitis C.
Healio Gastroenterology and Liver Disease presents this collection of health care perspectives that focus on HCV treatment for younger pediatric patients, HCV therapy uptake among injection drug users, hepatitis elimination efforts in Africa, and the next steps toward a functional cure for HBV.
VIDEO: Children ‘must not be left behind’ in the fight for hepatitis elimination
Marc Bulterys , MD, PhD, team leader of the Global Hepatitis Program at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, discusses the prevention, care and treatment of hepatitis B and hepatitis C among children and adolescents.
“This is a group that we should not leave behind; we have to make sure that they also get access to care and treatment,” Bulterys said. Watch here
VIDEO: Australia achieves high HCV therapy uptake among injection drug users
Heather Valerio, from the Kirby Institute at the University of New South Wales in Australia, provides an overview of the Enhancing Treatment of Hepatitis C in Opioid Substitution Settings Engage study of hepatitis C outcomes among people who inject drugs.
“Australia has had unrestricted access to direct-acting antiviral therapy for hepatitis C since March 2016 and in our study we have aimed to assess the extent of treatment uptake in people who inject drugs and the current hepatitis C prevalence in this population in an era of unrestricted direct-acting antiviral therapy access,” Valerio said. Watch here
VIDEO: Janssen HBV pipeline focuses on ‘increasing functional cure’ rates
James Merson, PhD, global therapeutic area head for infectious diseases at Janssen, discusses the company’s pipeline for hepatitis B with a focus on improving functional cure rates.
“For us at Janssen, HBV and being able to increase functional cure rates of patients living with HBV is an important part of our strategy as to how we can manage the disease more effectively than the current treatments do today,” Merson said. Watch here
VIDEO: First step to HBV cure is ‘understanding the virus’
Anuj Gaggar , MD, PhD, vice president of clinical research in liver diseases at Gilead Sciences, highlights some of the company’s advances in hepatitis B.
“We always want to see how we can get things better from where we are today. To do that, we want to get to curative regimens,” he told Healio Gastroenterology and Liver Disease. “The first step to cure is really understanding the virus, understanding the biology and doing some good research.” Watch here
VIDEO: Increased surveillance fuels hepatitis elimination in Africa
Olufunmilayo Lesi , FWACP, FMCP, from the University of Lagos in Nigeria, discusses the WHO’s goal for global elimination of viral hepatitis by the year 2030.
“There has been a lot of talk on how to do this and the WHO has five strategy directions toward accomplishing this goal,” Lesi told Healio Gastroenterology and Liver Disease. “My concern has been with viral hepatitis in the sub-Saharan African region. To that effect, I have heard some studies on surveillance.” Watch here
VIDEO: WHO expert discusses lessons learned in the global hepatitis response
Philippa Easterbrook, MD, senior scientist of the Global Hepatitis Program within the HIV Department at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, discusses a symposium focused on sharing “good practices and lessons learned” in the global viral hepatitis response.
“Although there are many champion countries that are moving fast toward elimination plans including Egypt, Mongolia, Georgia, Australia and even Rwanda, there are still many countries that are just establishing their national hepatitis response,” Easterbrook told Healio Gastroenterology and Liver Disease. “We felt that it would be extremely helpful for these countries as they plan their program response to have the advantage of learning lessons from other countries and their experiences in scaling up their hepatitis response.” Watch here