VHPB technical meeting: The impact of COVID-19

Meeting objectives:

The impact of COVID-19 on the prevention of viral hepatitis

  • Evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on National/regional vaccination and prevention programs for viral hepatitis

  • Discuss how increasing vaccine hesitancy due to the pandemic may endanger the high coverage rates of hepatitis B vaccination

  • Evaluate lessons learnt from existing catch up programmes

  • Discuss the scale up of the public health needs to improve prevention and immunization of viral hepatitis which were negatively influenced by the pandemic

 

The impact of COVID-19 on the viral hepatitis elimination goals

  • Evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on viral hepatitis, screening, control & treatment in Europe

  • What is the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the elimination goals, regionally and on country level

  • Review the possible implementation of control measures, new prevention strategies and monitoring systems during and after a pandemic, lessons learnt.
  • Assess the (extra) needs to achieve the goal of eliminating viral hepatitis as a major public health threat in Europe by 2030 as defined by WHO’s Regional office for Europe. Discuss successes, issues and the new challenges

Background document (PDF, 858 kB)

 

Thursday 18th of March 2021

PART 1 - The impact of COVID-19 on the prevention and vaccination of viral hepatitis

Welcome and opening of the meeting
Chair: Greet Hendrickx

16:30 – 17:00     Welcome and opening of the meeting (PDF, 382 kB)

Session 1.1: COVID-19 impact on hepatitis prevention in risk groups

Chair: Marko Korenjak

17:00 - 17:40     

How is the pandemic affecting harm reduction services working on HIV, hepatitis and STIs

Disruption in HIV, Hepatitis and STI services due to Covid

Pre-recorded

 (mp4, 112.779 kB)

Nicole Seguy (WHO) 

 

EMCDDA

Impact of COVID-19 on harm reduction services (PDF, 1.399 kB)

Live

Jane Mounteney (head of public health EMCDDA)

 

Correlation Network

How harm reduction must go on – focusing on hepatitis

Pre-recorded

 (mp4, 210.450 kB)

Eberhard Schatz (C-EHRN)

 

Session 1.2: COVID-19 impact on hepatitis immunization programs

Chair: Vana Papaevangelou

17:40 – 18:20

Immunization coverage - Are we losing ground? (PDF, 4.209 kB)

Live

Jennifer Requejo (UNICEF)

 

Country example Spain

Recovering lost vaccine coverage due to COVID-19 pandemic (PDF, 2.555 kB)

Live

Jaime Jesus Perez Martin

 

Session 1.3: How to strengthen viral hepatitis prevention programs

Chair: Antons Mozalevskis

18:20 – 19:20

Vaccines and routine immunization strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pre-recorded

  (mp4, 63.941 kB)

Ener Dinleyici 

 

Action plan of CDC

Routine Pediatric Vaccination during the COVID-19 Pandemic, U.S. (PDF, 817 kB)

Live

Yoonjae Kang (CDC)

 

Action plan of WHO Euro

Mitigating the impact of COVID-19 on control of vaccine-preventable diseases: a health risk management approach focused on catch-up vaccination?

Guiding principles for immunization activities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Live

Liudmila Mosina (WHO Euro)

 

Country example Italy

Maintain and increase vaccination coverage in children, adolescents, adults and elderly people: Let's avoid adding epidemics to the pandemic: Appeal from the Board of the Vaccination Calendar for Life in Italy: Maintain and increase coverage also by re-organizing vaccination services and reassuring the population.

Pre-recorded

 (mp4, 43.092 kB)

Paolo Bonanni 

 

Session 1.4: Groups discussions

Chairs: Erika Duffel & Mojca Maticic

19:20 – 19:50

Groups discussion: How to minimize the COVID-19 impact on viral Hepatitis prevention and control

Poll questions.

  1. Is there a COVID-19 impact on harm-reduction? Y/N

  2. Should actions be undertaken to minimise the impact? And who should take action? WHO, ministry of health of the country, Europe, NGO/civil society, EMCCDA, others

  3. Will the impact of COVID-19 be substantial for the hepatitis B vaccination program? Y/N

  4. Are there opportunities for the hepatitis program, when promoting COVID-19 vaccination? Y/N

  5. Who should strengthen the viral hepatitis prevention programs? WHO, ECDC, GAVI, ministry of health from the country, others

19:50 – 20:00 - Closing of the meeting

 

Thursday 25th of March 2021

Part 2 - The impact of COVID-19 on the WHO Elimination goals

Welcome and opening of the meeting

Chair: Greet Hendrickx

16:30-17:00        Welcome and opening of the meeting (PDF, 1.174 kB)

 

Session 2.1: Impact of COVID -19 on Viral hepatitis elimination goals

Chair: Thomas Vanwolleghem

17:00 - 18:10

World Hepatitis Assembly, result of the Survey among their members investigating the impact of COVID on the Viral hepatitis elimination goals – point of view of the patient organisations focussing on Europe

Pre-recorded

 (mp4, 20.607 kB)

Chris Wingrove (The World Hepatitis Alliance, Head of Communications)

 

Impact on Hepatitis B elimination goals

The global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. (PDF, 1.406 kB)

Live

Philippa Matthews

 

Impact on Hepatitis C elimination goals

Impact of COVID-19 on global HCV elimination efforts.

Pre-recorded

 (mp4, 114.460 kB)

Sarah Blach (CDA Foundation)

 

Impact on Screening

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on testing services for HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections in the WHO European Region, March to August 2020. (PDF, 1.432 kB)

Live

Annemarie Rinder Stengaard

 

Country experience – Spain

Impact of COVID-19 on the viral hepatitis C elimination in Spain.

Pre-recorded

 (mp4, 73.974 kB)

Sergio Rodríguez-Tajes

 

Session 2.2 : WHO Elimination goals

Chair: Paige Armstrong

18:10-18:30

Future activities and action plans to support the elimination of viral hepatitis as a public health treat (PDF, 3.312 kB)

Live

Antons Mozalevskis (WHO Euro)

 

18:30-19:00

Monitoring the elimination goals by the CGHE national dashboards.

Pre-recorded

 (mp4, 81.307 kB)

John Ward

 

Impact of COVID-19 Response on Hepatitis Prevention Care and Treatment: Results From Global Survey of Providers and Program Managers

Pre-recorded

 (mp4, 15.327 kB)

Jessica Laury

 

Session 2.3: Groups discussion

Chair: Antons Mozalevskis & Homie Razavi

19:00-19:50

Groups discussion: Assess the (extra) needs to achieve the goal of eliminating viral hepatitis as a major public health threat in Europe by 2030.

Poll questions.

1.            Will COVID-19 have an impact on the elimination goals to be reached by 2030

a.            No impact

b.            On ALL goals

c.            On specific goals

i.              Immunization

ii.             Harm reduction

iii.            Screening – diagnosis

iv.           Treatment

v.            Incidence

vi.           Mortality

 

2.            Will the hepatitis be eliminated as a public health treat by 2030

a.            YES for all hepatitides

b.            NO for all hepatitides

c.            YES for hepatitis C

d.            NO for hepatitis C

e.            YES for hepatitis B

f.             NO for hepatitis B

 

3.            Who should take actions to secure that in 2030 Hepatitis will be eliminated as a public health treat by 2030

a.            No Action

b.            WHO

c.            WHO Regional

d.            Patient organizations

e.            NGO’s

f.             Ministry of health of the country

g.            others

19:50-20:00        Closing of the meeting

 

 

Meeting report by David FitzSimons (PDF, 403kB)

 
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