December 2024 Update
Holiday Greetings from Hepatitis B Free
Hepatitis B Free sends its wishes for a blessed holiday season to all our supporters and friends. We hope that each one of you is finding personal joy and peace amidst the many challenges that 2024 has brought. Your faithful support has enabled us to continue our efforts to relieve the suffering of those afflicted with hepatitis.
Since our last report, our teams have made several trips to far-flung locations. In October Drs. Alice Lee and David Hilmers, along with HBF co-founder, Sue Huntley, travelled to Madagascar. Alongside our partners from African Doctors for Africa (ADFA), we worked in two new locations, the beautiful mountainous area around Fianarantsoa and the port city of Toamasina. In coordination with several dedicated local physicians, we were able to meet with local and national government officials to initiate a two-phase program to prevent maternal to child transmission of hepatitis B. If successful, this program will introduce birth dose hepatitis B vaccination in the country and anti-viral prophylaxis for hepatitis B-positive pregnant women. This is a complex and very ambitious program, but the enthusiastic response that we have received from our local partners makes us confident that steady progress towards achieving our goals will continue.
Sue Huntley and Dr. Thomas Russell travelled to Kiribati in November and early December. Thomas worked in the outer island of Butaritari for a portion of the trip, helping to screen the population and starting hepatitis B-positive patients on anti-viral therapy. Sue coordinated with the government, local team members and our partners in the PEARL Plus project. PEARL Plus is screening the entire population of South Tarawa for tuberculosis, leprosy and scabies and has now added hepatitis B to their screening program. Nearly 100 new hepatitis B cases have been discovered, and these individuals have been referred to our hepatitis clinic for evaluation. The efforts of Sue and Thomas helped strengthen partnerships but also showed areas where more attention is needed.
On New Year’s Eve, Alice, David and Thomas will journey to Kiritimati (pronounced like “Christmas” in the local language), the easternmost island in the country of Kiribati. While there are only about 8000 people on the island, it makes up about 70% of the total land mass of Kiribati. It is just across the international date line, making it one of the first places in the world to usher in the new year. We plan to screen as much of the population as possible for hepatitis B during our trip and will start patients on therapy, as appropriate.
We had planned to visit a new site in Papua New Guinea in November. However, despite requesting visas over a month prior to departure, approval came in a week after our planned departure. As a result, our visit has been delayed until the first quarter of 2025.
We have partnered with the University of Queensland, along with other organizations from Australia and the Pacific Islands, in the submission of a grant proposal to study neglected tropical diseases. Hepatitis B screening has been included in this project and, if funding is awarded, will expand our outreach to the island-nations of Samoa, the Cook Islands, and Palau. We are also working with local partners in Tuvalu to start a new hepatitis B treatment program.
These projects will keep us very busy during 2025. Your support has enabled us to continue our programs despite the many challenges that we have encountered. We wish you many blessings during this holiday season and in the year to come.
Sincerely,
David Hilmers
Chief Medical Officer
