Hepatitis B drug developers chart slow progress forward, just like hep C before it. Read more here.

Coalition Against Hepatitis for People of African Origin (CHIPO)

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CHIPO

The Coalition Against Hepatitis for People of African Origin (CHIPO) is a community coalition co-founded and led by the Hepatitis B Foundation. We are comprised of organizations and individuals interested in addressing the high rates of hepatitis B infection among African communities around the world. CHIPO serves as a forum for sharing information and best practices and increasing national capacity to improve hepatitis B awareness, testing, vaccination and treatment among highly affected African communities.

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People of African origin are disproportionately affected by hepatitis B infection. In fact, in some African communities in the U.S., between 5% and 15% of people have chronic HBV infection. Unfortunately, due to the silent nature of the disease, lack of disease awareness, and limited health care access, most African community members who have hepatitis B DO NOT KNOW that they are infected. This puts them at much greater risk for premature death from cirrhosis or liver cancer.

The key to addressing the high burden of hepatitis B infection in people of African origin is to improve awareness and access to hepatitis B information, screening, vaccination, and follow-up care. CHIPO brings together people from around the world who are working in their own local communities to address these very issues.


 

Breaking News!

NAIRHHA Day Press Release

On September 18th, 2023 Hepatitis Caucus Co-Chairs, Congressman Hank Johnson and Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez (NY) along with HIV/AIDS Caucus Co-Chair, Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA), introduced a resolution to recognize September 9th as National African Immigrant and Refugee HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis Awareness (NAIRHHA) Day. Read the full press release here!

Listed on HIV3.gov 2

We're thrilled to announce that National African Immigrant and Refugee HIV & Hepatitis Awareness (NAIRHHA) Day, observed on September 9th, is now officially listed on HIV.gov! Learn more about the awareness day and how you can get involved here!

Join our upcoming webinar!

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We hope you can join us for an upcoming webinar, Hepatitis B Advocacy in Africa: Case Examples from Ghana and Nigeria, during which speakers will share their experiences of working toward and achieving policy change around hepatitis B within state- and country-level Ministries of Health, which can hopefully serve as a model for similar advocacy in other contexts. As we are aware, hepatitis B carries a significant burden across the African continent with over 60 million Africans living with hepatitis B. To improve testing, access to management and treatment, and prevention, it takes significant political commitment and advocacy. This webinar will discuss strategies to engage with political leaders within the African context. We hope by the end of this session you will be inspired and encouraged to create similar initiatives in your communities. The webinar will take place on Thursday December 7th at 10am ET/3pm GMT/4pm WAT. You can register here.

Join CHIPO!

Does your organization serve African populations, or are you a passionate community member? All are welcome at CHIPO's coalition calls! Our next call will take place on Monday January 22nd, 2024 at 3pm Eastern Time - more details coming soon! Email beatrice.zovich@hepb.org if you have questions or are interested in joining! 

Check out our latest webinar!

Effectively Addressing High Rates of Liver Cancer in African Communities

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In honor of October being Liver Cancer Awareness Month, we were joined by Dr. Kenneth Rothstein, Director of Regional Hepatology at Penn Medicine Health System and Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, who discussed the trends he is seeing in liver cancer in African communities in the Philadelphia area, as well as globally, and methods for effectively lowering these rates. View Dr. Rothstein's slides here

News and Updates

Recent article (October 2023): Seroprevalence of Human Immunodeficiency Virus, Hepatitis C Virus, and Hepatitis B Virus Among Blood Donors in Sidi Bel Abbes, West Algeria

Recent article (October 2023): Black People Less Likely to Be Eligible for Hepatitis B Treatment

Recent article (September 2023): Five-year results of a treatment program for chronic hepatitis B in Ethiopia

Recent article (August 2023): A Comparison of the Awareness, Attitude, and Uptake of COVID-19, Hepatitis B Virus, and Yellow Fever Vaccines Between Rural and Urban Respondents in Edo State, Nigeria

Recent article (August 2023): Somalia, WHO renew efforts to tackle viral hepatitis

Recent article (August 2023): World Hepatitis Day held at Ho; over 900 screen, vaccinated

Recent article (July 2023): Afenyo-Markin calls for inclusion of Hepatitis B in NHIS, assure constituents of Viral Loading Machine

Recent article (July 2023: WHO tells African countries to make Hepatitis treatment available through PHC services

Recent article (July2023): WHO Calls For Action To Eliminate Viral Hepatitis In Africa By 2030

Recent article (July 2023): WHO Tasks Nigeria, Others On Viral Hepatitis Elimination

Recent article (July 2023): Study reveals need for early diagnosis and treatment of liver disease in Africa

Recent article (July 2023): World Needs to Dramatically Scale Up Hepatitis Testing and Treatment

Recent article (July 2023): Ghana: Childhood Immunisation Programme - Newborns to Receive Hepatitis B Vaccines ...Within 24hrs of Birth Beginning Next Year

Recent article (July 2023): Uganda elevates health for all with free hepatitis testing, treatment and vaccines

Recent article (July 2023): Progress Toward Hepatitis B Control and Elimination of Mother-to-Child Transmission of Hepatitis B Virus

Recent article (July 2023): Recent progress in infant hepatitis B vaccination efforts in Africa

Recent article (July 2023): Hepatitis B Vaccination Efforts in Africa Are Flagging

Recent article (July 2023): Risk Factors for Hepatitis B Virus Infection in North Ethiopia: A Case–Control Study

Recent article (July 2023): Informing a target product profile for rapid tests to identify HBV-infected pregnant women with high viral loads: a discrete choice experiment with African healthcare workers

Recent article (June 2023): Nigeria: Health Experts Advocate End to Mother to Child Transmission of Diseases

Recent article (June 2023): Racial Disparities in Chronic Hepatitis B: Implications for Treatment and Outcomes

Recent article (June 2023): Effutu: Afenyo Markin secures viral load machine for testing and treatment of hepatitis B for constituents

Recent article (June 2023): World Hepatitis day 2021 –screening and vaccination against Hepatitis B virus in Accra, Ghana

Recent article (June 2023): Scale up Hepatitis B testing in Ghana

Recent article (May 2023): Modelling of Hepatitis B Virus vertical transmission dynamics in Ethiopia: a compartmental modelling approach

Recent article (May 2023): Viral hepatitis like AIDS: that’s why we need to eliminate them (and we can’t)

Recent article (May 2023): High hopes but low pledges for hepatitis conference in Geneva

Recent article (April 2023): Measuring stigma associated with hepatitis B virus infection in Sierra Leone: Validation of an abridged Berger HIV stigma scale

Recent article (April 2023): Opinion: Here’s why Gavi must start hepatitis B vaccination in Africa

Recent article (April 2023): No racial disparities observed in chronic HBV treatment rates among eligible patients

Recent article (April 2023): Mapping hepatitis B virus genotypes on the African continent from 1997 to 2021: a systematic review with meta-analysis

View our Publication! Barriers to Hepatitis B Screening and Prevention for African Immigrant Populations in the United States: A Qualitative Study (2020)

From our Partners

For our November 2023, we were excited to be joined by Sunyasemeni Almond Ezra, Executive Director of Jeneso Development Initiative in Adamawa, Nigeria, who presented on efforts the organization has been making to establish hepatitis B prevalence in the local government area, through offering education and screening, as well as vaccination and linkage to care. Mr. Ezra also discussed effective approaches to data collection, management, and presentation. You can view Mr. Ezra's slides here. 

For our July 2023 CHIPO call, we were joined by Dr. John Ward of the Coalition for Global Hepatitis Elimination, who discussed the importance of GAVI's re-introduction of support for hepatitis B birth dose in Africa. You can view Dr. Ward's slides here.

The April 2023 CHIPO coalition call focused on advocacy efforts in different contexts and featured a presentation by Dr. Gilbert Ngwaneh Miki, Executive Director and Founding President of Community Vision Group in Cameroon and Malawi, about the current initiatives of his organization in the fight to eliminate hepatitis B. You can view these slides here. We also welcomed Frank Hood, Associate Director of Policy and Partnerships at the Hepatitis B Foundation and Director of Hep B United, as well as Rhea Racho, Director of Advocacy and Engagement at the Hepatitis B Foundation, to share about the current advocacy priorities and profile of the Hepatitis B Foundation. You can view these slides here

The March 2023 CHIPO coalition call included a presentation from Abby Showalter, Senior Manager of Social Media and Communications at the Hepatitis B Foundation, about how to use social media effectively as a public health tool. You can view Abby's slides here.

Montefiore Einstein Starfish Project is working to raise awareness and increase hepatitis B screening for people of West African descent in the Bronx, NYC. Click here to support their efforts and get more details on the program.

The Starfish Program has hepatitis B fact sheets available for West African communities that can be found in English, Twi, Hausa, French, and Igbo.

African Services Committee in New York City created a flyer in both English and French about understanding your hepatitis B test results. View this resource here.

From our Blog

Podcast Recaps: A Global Perspective on Stigma and Discrimination Against Hepatitis B

CHIPO Partner Highlight: Falcons Health Foundation of Accra, Ghana

CHIPO Partner Highlight: Hepatitis B Initiative of Washington, D.C.

What's the Difference?: Herbal Remedies and Supplements v. Western Medicine

Reactivation with Hepatitis B: Understanding Risk Factors and Prevention Strategies

CHIPO Partner Highlight: United States Coalition for African Immigrant Health

CHIPO Partner Highlight: Illinois Public Health Association

CHIPO Partner Highlight: Great Lakes Peace Centre

CHIPO Is Looking for New Members!

Tackling Hepatitis B in Africa: The First Nigerian Hepatitis Summit

Where is Hepatitis Delta? High Prevalence of Hepatitis B/Delta Coinfection in Central Africa

Raising Awareness about Hepatitis B in African Immigrant Communities in the US

CHIPO Call Minutes

November 2023

September 2023

July 2023

April 2023

March 2023

January 2023

November 2022

July 2022

May 2022

March 2022

February 2022

December 2021

November 2021

July 2021

January 2021

November 2020

July 2020

May 2020

January 2020 

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