Scaling Up Hepatitis B Treatment in Ethiopia
Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) affects 64 million individuals who reside in African. A previous collaborative study between Vestfold Hospital (Norway) and St. Paul’s Millenium Hospital (Ethiopia) demonstrated the dire need to modify and simplify the 2015 WHO hepatitis B guidelines so many more patients in Africa can be treated for better clinical outcomes. To scale-up CHB diagnosis and treatment, a pilot program implementing a simplified protocol was conducted at regional hospitals outside the capitol city through collaborative efforts between Vestfold, St. Paul’s and Ethiopian Ministry of Health. Building capacity beyond the tertiary hospital, integrating into existing services for HIV, securing procurements of low-cost diagnostics and antivirals, and developing national guidelines, were the key steps towards a national roll-out. The program aimed to decentralize services so to achieve sustainability. The simplified protocol from this work informed the 2024 WHO hepatitis B guidelines.
PDF: Ethiopia HBV Publications
HEPSANET: Hepatitis B in Africa Collaborative Network
Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection remains high in most sub-Saharan African countries, and advances towards the control of viral hepatitis have been limited. One of the issues is the lack of data informing the natural history of CHB and disease characterization among the African population. A collaborative network named HEPASNET was formed in 2020 for the intended purpose of sharing and exchanging clinical data of African patients in order to improve treatment and care delivery of CHB in the continent. Founded and led by investigators at Vestfold Hospital in Norway, HEPASNET is an online platform where investigators from various clinical sites can enter patient data in a standardized format for analysis. Currently HEPASNET consists of 19 clinical sites from 11 sub-Saharan and south African countries. The network is projected to cover 15,000 patients for 10 years of follow up. Applying the knowledge gained, HEPSANET in collaboration with African CDC is developing hepatitis B guidelines specifically for Africa.