Viral Hepatitis Updates from the HHS Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy

Dear Colleague,

As you may have seen, HHS launched Mapping Hepatitis Elimination in Action based on requests from stakeholders like you. The Map highlights the collective impact of individuals and organizations committed to the fight against viral hepatitis, aiming to amplify and stimulate collaborative work to eliminate viral hepatitis nationwide. The Map will be updated regularly as more stakeholders join elimination efforts. Read moreabout this ongoing project and how you can add your own elimination project to the map.

In a major step toward eliminating hepatitis C among American Indians & Alaska Natives, the Indian Health Service (IHS) launched the Eliminating Hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS in Indian Country Initiative and issued new guidance recommending that all adults receive an HCV test at least once in their lifetime. These efforts can directly impact a stark health disparity among American Indian & Alaska Native communities where HCV-related mortality is more than double the national rate. Curing hepatitis C improves health outcomes and has been shown to quickly and drastically reduce deaths. The IHS efforts support expansion of viral hepatitis elimination work already underway by the Cherokee Nation and the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, which are part of the Mapping Hepatitis Elimination in Action initiative . You can read more about the Cherokee Nation’s successes in this blog. Focused elimination efforts in communities that are greatly affected, often called micro-elimination projects, are critical to the United States’ work to address viral hepatitis.

Sharing viral hepatitis elimination successes is an opportunity to celebrate our achievements and increase awareness of great work taking place across our nation. Together we are putting the United States on the path toward eliminating viral hepatitis.

Corinna Dan, RN, MPH
Office of HIV/AIDS and Infectious Disease Policy
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

What's New in the Blog

In case you missed them, here’s a quick rundown of posts recently published on the HHS Viral Hepatitis blog:

Curing Hepatitis C in People Living with HIV in the United States: A Federal, State and Local Collaboration (6/18/2019) – AETC highlights the evolution of the SPNS HIV/HCV coinfection project from curriculum development through training implementation and resource development.
Seeking Provider Input: Participate in the 2019 State of HCV Care National Survey (6/7/2019) – HealthHCV launched its State of HCV Care National Survey in partnership with Medscape. The data will inform national hepatitis C public health interventions.
From NIH: Trial Evaluating Experimental Hepatitis C Vaccine Concludes (6/5/2019) – New research results found that an experimental vaccine was not effective at preventing chronic hepatitis C virus infection in adults.
May Hepatitis Awareness Month: HHS Highlights Elimination Efforts (5/22/2019) – For Hepatitis Awareness Month, HHS launched a new project – Mapping Hepatitis Elimination in Action along with key hepatitis messaging graphics.
National Hepatitis Testing Day – Indian Health Service Now Recommends Hepatitis C Testing for All Adult Patients (5/21/2019) – Since hepatitis C disproportionately affects American Indians & Alaska Natives, HIS issued new guidance recommending all adults be tested for HCV at least once.
Join OMH and OHAIDP for the May 22, 2019 Webinar: Mapping Hepatitis Elimination (5/20/2019) – During Hepatitis Awareness Month, the Office of Minority Health and OHAIDP collaborated with stakeholders to launch the first Map of Hepatitis Elimination projects in the United States.

Hepatitis in the News

Widespread outbreaks of hepatitis A across the United States (6/14/2019) – Since hepatitis A outbreaks were first identified in 2016, 23 states have publicly reported 20,133 cases and 191 deaths as of June 14, 2019. This page also includes details surrounding these outbreaks in addition to state-specific cases and clinical outcomes.
Hepatitis A outbreak reaches 8 Arizona counties (6/11/2019) – Across Arizona, 353 cases of hepatitis A have been confirmed since November 2018. In May 2019 alone, nearly 90 cases were reported in eight counties.
Florida Hepatitis A Outbreak Nears 1,500 Cases (6/10/2019) – Florida’s Department of Health website reports 1,466 document hepatitis A cases since the start of 2019. This number, when compared with the 1,175 previous five-year combined total, underscores the aberrant quality of these recent outbreaks.