Image: Professor Margaret Hellard AM with WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

Burnet Institute Deputy Director Professor Margaret Hellard AM has been appointed co-Chair of a World Health Organization (WHO) Global Partners Meeting on hepatitis.

The two-day meeting (27-28 February) in Geneva was convened to leverage a new partnership push to eliminate hepatitis, and brings together countries and partner organisations to jointly advocate for accelerated action and to mobilise country partnerships to achieve impact where it’s most needed.

Ahead of the meeting, Professor Hellard met with the WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to discuss global efforts to achieve viral hepatitis elimination.

“Also the importance of raising community awareness about viral hepatitis, engagement in care, particularly at the primary care level, and the ongoing importance of harm reduction.”

Hepatitis elimination, including the scale-up of effective hepatitis C treatments is recognised as a ‘flagship’ initiative by Dr Tedros.

The WHO has a vision of reducing new viral hepatitis infections by 90 percent and reducing deaths due to viral hepatitis by 65 percent by 2030.

Find out more about Burnet’s research aimed at the elimination of viral hepatitis.