On 8 June 2017, Alliance for Public Health (Alliance) hosted a meeting with representatives of the WHO assessment mission on viral hepatitis, attended by representatives of Alliance, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, the Public Health Center of the Ministry of Health, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The assessment mission is carried out on 6-9 June 2017 at the invitation of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.
At the meeting in Alliance office, WHO experts were presented with the developments in testing members of key populations for Hepatitis B and C, results of Hepatitis B vaccination and outcomes of awareness-raising campaigns.
Sergey Filippovych, Director: Treatment, Procurement and Supply Management, presented the unique experience of Alliance in ensuring control over the spread of Hepatitis B and C in key populations, told about the achievements in reducing the prices for direct-acting antivirals and results of the Alliance project aimed at Hepatitis C treatment in key populations using Sovaldi and Harvoni.
The Executive Director of Alliance, Andriy Klepikov, marked out fruitful cooperation with the Public Health Center of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and interest of Alliance in implementing modern health care technologies to control the spread of viral hepatitis in Ukraine.
Besides, at the meeting Alliance announced its support of the National Viral Hepatitis Hotline.
The WHO mission members highly appraised sustainability of Alliance initiatives and efforts, consistency of the approaches and interventions in response to hepatitis as well as the uniqueness of the treatment project. They recognized high quality of analysis of the data presented based on the results of Hepatitis C treatment with direct-acting antivirals in key populations.
Martin Donoghoe, representative of the WHO Regional Office for Europe, pointed out that during the work of the mission in Ukraine Alliance was the organization which voiced the vision of overcoming the problem of hepatitis in the country which is in line with 2016-2021 WHO Global Health Sector Strategy on Viral Hepatitis – elimination of viral hepatitis as a major public health threat.
Meeting participants discussed the issue of the national response to Hepatitis in Ukraine and priority of resolving the issues based on public health approaches to building the patient-centered health care system.