HR23 pre-conference on viral hepatitis and harm reduction
On 15 April, our Executive Director, Finn Jarle Rode, will be in Melbourne for the HR23 pre-conference on viral hepatitis and harm reduction. He will join a panel of experts, including representatives from CHAI, INPUD, The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and Harm Reduction International, to discuss the financial landscape around hepatitis and harm reduction. You can register for the in-person event here.
The pre-conference is part of the Harm Reduction International Conference (HR23) taking place in Melbourne and virtually from 16 to 19 April 2023. For more info on the conference and its programme, visit 27th Harm Reduction International Conference (hri.global).
Photo credit: Jacqueline Wales for Pixabay.
02.27.2023
New partnership with Muslim World League
We’re pleased to share that we started a new partnership with the Muslim World League (WML).
WML is supporting our efforts as part of its involvement in global health. WML is an engaged supporter of health-related initiatives and, in recent years, implemented various programmes that provided healthcare to more than one million people. We believe that fostering dialogue can improve the collective response to global challenges. The Muslim world is deeply affected by hepatitis, and the global response must involve them to be successful.
Finn Jarle Rode, Executive Director of The Hepatitis Fund, in Riyadh with H.E. Sheikh Dr Mohammad Alissa.
09.26.2019
The latest news in viral hepatitis elimination.
The Hepatitis Fund first Activity Report has been released on World Hepatitis Day 2021. Find it here.
How can the world end viral hepatitis by 2030? 5 experts explain. Read Manal El-Sayed blog post contribution for WHD 2021 here.
WHO released a report demonstrating the role global health donors have in catalytic funding to achieve the goals of hepatitis elimination and Universal Health Coverage. Read the report here.
08.08.2019
Pakistan announces a new ambitious plan to eliminate viral hepatitis by 2030
On World Hepatitis Day, the Government of Pakistan announced a new ambitious plan by the Prime Minister to eliminate viral hepatitis by 2030. The plan was unveiled by Dr Zafar Mirza, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister, and aims to scale up hepatitis prevention, testing and treatment services by screening up to 140 million people in Pakistan for viral hepatitis and providing free medical treatment for those infected. Approximately, 15 million people are living with hepatitis B and C in Pakistan and more than 20,000 people die annually of hepatitis-related causes.
New initiatives were also announced for injection safety, safe blood transfusion and national infection control guidelines. The Government of Pakistan has also been able to procure hepatitis C treatment at low prices. Providing treatment to all those currently diagnosed with hepatitis C could reduce healthcare costs in Pakistan within three years. It is estimated that 16 million people in Pakistan will need antivirals.
Pakistan’s President Alvi noted, “The plan is a step forward toward improving healthcare in the country and achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals in the long run.”
Finn Jarle Rode is Executive Director at the Hepatitis Fund. Previously he was Executive Director at the Oslo Center, where he ran a turnaround operation, both in terms of finances as well as strategically. Finn Jarle has previously served as Director in the Global Partnership team of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) headquarters in Geneva. He has more than 20+years of experience in IFRC/ICRC and Norwegian Red Cross. He has been IFRC’s Country Director in Afghanistan, North Korea, Regional Director for Eastern Africa, and Indian Ocean Islands. Finn Jarle also held different positions in the private sector in Norway, including within shipping and the hotel industry. He holds an MBA from Heriot-Watts with in depth focus on organisational development and international finance.
Wangsheng
Mr. Wangsheng Li co-founded The Hepatitis Fund with Charles Gore and is its founding president. For ten years, Wangsheng was president of ZeShan Foundation; in that capacity he led ZeShan’s grantmaking programs and spearheaded the foundation’s response to viral hepatitis as a global health threat. He was instrumental in forming a tripartite partnership between the US CDC, World Health Organization and ZeShan Foundation, which eventually led to the creation of The Hepatitis Fund.
Wangsheng has had a long career in the non-profit sector. Prior to joining ZeShan, Mr. Li was the associate director of the Yale-China Association and directed the association’s first major expansion in China since its forced exit from China in early 1950s. For over six years, he was a program manager at MetLife Foundation and the company’s corporate contributions program, where he implemented many innovative programs to promote art’s intrinsic value in children’s learning and overall development, in quality of life for the elderly, and in bringing together diverse communities through arts and culture. Early in his career, he taught in universities and served on the editorial boards for several publications. He served as a review panelist for the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Business Committee for the Arts, and the Institute of International Education. He has also served on the boards of several organizations, including the Asian American Arts Alliance, the New Asia College of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Yale Club of Hong Kong, and the Chung Kin-Kwok Education Foundation.
Lynn Lau
Lynn serves on the board of the Hepatitis Fund. Lynn has more than 15 years in the insurance and investment industry across the UK, China and Singapore. She was last Managing Director and CFO of a private equity investment firm focusing on healthcare and hospitality, and also Executive Director of the Fullerton Health Foundation, a charity associated with the Fullerton Health Group, advocating for the elimination of tuberculosis. Lynn championed Fullerton Health Foundation’s contribution as a founding member of Ending Workplace TB, a global initiative launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2020, involving multilateral organisations as well as private sector businesses to leverage the power of business to help create health awareness amongst workers, improve healthcare access to workers and reducing stigma of infection.
Lynn has an MBA from London Business School and is a Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants and a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investments. She also serves as a director of Windward Insurance Brokers, a young digital insurance broker.
Carol Tissot
Carol has been practicing law since 2006 with specialty in banking, commodity trade finance, employment and labour law liability and insurance law and litigation. She’s a president of the Geneva Labour Court.
Before joining Eversheds Sutherland Ltd, Carol Tissot worked as a legal officer at Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch (2007), BNP Paribas (Suisse) SA (2011), Arab Bank Switzerland Ltd (2012-2019) and LALIVE in Geneva. She also worked as a clerk at the Geneva Labor Court from 2010 to 2017.
Carol Tissot graduated from the University of Geneva (lic. iur. 2005). She also holds a Certificate in Transnational Law (2005), a Master of Advanced Studies (LL.M) in Business Law (2007) and an MBA specialized in commodity trade finance (2017) from the same University. She obtained a Bachelor in Economic Science and Management from Unidistance University in Sierre in 2017.
Carol is a member of the Women International Shipping and Trading Association, Switzerland (WISTA), the Swiss Bar Association, and the International Association of Lawyers (UIA).
Charles Gore
Charles Gore is the Executive Director of the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP). Following a career in patient representation and public health advocacy, he took up the post in July 2018 to guide MPP in its expansion into new areas covered by the WHO Essential Medicines List.
He was diagnosed with hepatitis C in 1995 and cirrhosis in 1998. In 2000 he set up The Hepatitis C Trust in the UK which he ran for 18 years. In 2002 he was treated and cured of the virus. He helped create the European Liver Patients Association and was its first President in 2004. In 2007 he established the World Hepatitis Alliance and was President until December 2017. As a result of advocacy by the Alliance, WHO adopted successive viral hepatitis resolutions in 2010, 2014 and 2016, culminating in endorsement of the goal of eliminating hepatitis B and C by 2030. In addition to direct advocacy with over 50 Ministries of Health, Charles led on advising countries on finding sustainable domestic financing for hepatitis programs. Charles also sat on a number of national and international advisory bodies including the WHO Director-General’s HIV and Hepatitis STAC and has been a member of all the WHO guideline development groups on testing and treating viral hepatitis.
Manal El-Sayed
Dr. Manal El-Sayed (Cairo, Egypt) is Professor of Pediatrics at Ain Shams University. She is the clinical director of the national HCV Pediatric treatment program and the director of the clinical research unit and co-supervisor of the viral hepatitis treatment center at Ain Shams University. Manal has worked with pediatric hematology and oncology teams at Ain Shams University, National Cancer Institute, and 57357 Children’s Cancer Hospital since 1990.
Manal is a founding member of the Egyptian National Committee for Control of Viral Hepatitis (NCCVH) charged with planning and implementing the nationwide program for prevention and management of viral hepatitis since 2006. She contributed to the establishment of a nationwide network of 55 specialized liver centers that provided interferon therapy to 350,000 HCV-infected patients. Since 2014 when the NCCVH introduced the new direct-acting antiviral agents for HCV, more than 3 million patients have been treated. Manal collaborated on the development of the national action plan for prevention and control of viral hepatitis published in October 2014 with representatives from WHO, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S. CDC), Pasteur Institute, and national stakeholders. In addition to co-supervising the nationwide mass screening program for adults and children reaching so far more than 56 million people.
Manal is also an active board member and secretary general of the Egyptian Liver Care Society, a non-governmental organization that offers financial assistance to patients receiving treatment for hepatitis or liver transplants. She has authored and co-authored numerous journal articles on hepatitis and liver diseases, and participated in the development of WHO’s HBV, HCV and diagnostic guidelines. From 2011-2015, Manal was Vice Chair of WHO’s Technical Advisory Group for Prevention and Control of Viral Hepatitis in Egypt. She is also a board member of the European Study of Liver Disease International Liver Foundation since January 2018.
Gregg H. Alton
Mr. Alton spent more than 20 years at Gilead Sciences, where he served in an array of leadership roles across a portfolio of responsibilities. From January 2019 until March 2019, Mr. Alton was Gilead’s interim chief executive officer. Prior to that, he was the company’s chief patient officer, responsible for Gilead’s government affairs, public affairs, patient outreach, and engagement initiatives, as well as efforts to facilitate access to its medicines around the world. During his tenure at Gilead, his wide-ranging roles included leadership of commercial operations in Europe,Asia, Latin America, and Africa, as well as government affairs, public affairs, and global medical affairs. He also served as general counsel and chief compliance officer. Prior to joining Gilead, Mr. Alton was an attorney at the law firm of Cooley Godward, LLP, where he specialized in corporate finance transactions for healthcare and information technology companies. Mr. Alton is a member of the board of directors of Corcept Therapeutics, Enochian Biosciences, and several non-profit organizations, including Black Women’s Health Imperative, AIDSVu, and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Oakland. Mr. Alton received a bachelor’s degree in legal studies from the University of California at Berkeley and a law degree from Stanford University.
Gottfried Hirnschall
Dr Gottfried Hirnschall was the Director of the HIV/AIDS Department and the Global Hepatitis Programme (GHP) of the World Health Organization until 2019. In that role he led the organization’s work in strategy, advocacy, cutting-edge normative policies, and of country support to scale-up national responses to HIV and viral hepatitis. From 2005-2008 he directed the PAHO Caribbean HIV office. Throughout his career, the inclusion of vulnerable and stigmatized groups in national programme responses has been of central concern. Dr Hirnschall holds an MD from the University of Vienna, Austria, and an MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Kenneth
Kenneth Kabagambe is the Founding Executive Director of the National Organization for People Living with Hepatitis B (NOPLHB) the only patient driven Non-Governmental Organization advocating for the rights of Hepatitis B patients in Uganda. He is also a member of the Hepatitis Technical Working Committee of the Ministry of Health.
Kenneth is also the Past Executive Board Member for the African Region at the World Hepatitis Alliance. Kenneth has attended high level consultancy workshops by WHO on Viral Hepatitis. Kenneth was one of the judges during the WHO Hepatitis testing contest that emerged into the Hepatitis B and C testing guidelines.
Kenneth is also a member of the African Union Hepatitis Technical Working Group
He is the brain behind the African Hepatitis Summit 2019 held in Kampala that brought over 600 regional and global leaders working on viral hepatitis for a high-level meeting that led to the Egyptian support towards the treatment of hepatitis C patients in Africa.
Kenneth has extensive patient experience in the field of Viral Hepatitis as he has spent most of his entire life working on advocating for patients’ rights in accessing quality diagnosis, care and treatment.
He holds a Bachelors’ degree in social sciences with a bias in Sociology and Public Administration of Makerere University Kampala.
His aim is to strengthen the patient voice in Africa and across the global in recognizing the growing burden of Viral Hepatitis which now claims more people than HIV/AIDS but still not given the profile it deserves the reason he has initiated the Africa Hepatitis Initiative (AHI) a Pan African organization with a vision is to mitigate the impact of viral hepatitis in Africa through collaborations with key stakeholders in viral hepatitis.
