World Hepatitis Day 2021 - Hepatitis C Can’t Wait, Malaysia Isn’t Waiting

To observe World Hepatitis Day, 28 July, FIND and DNDi are organizing a webinar that will be webcast via FIND’s YouTube Live Stream on 27 July 2021 at 15:00 MYT / 09:00 CEST with the support from the World Health Organization (WHO), the Ministry of Health Malaysia (MoH) and the Malaysian AIDS Council (MAC) under the theme ─ "Hepatitis C can’t wait, Malaysia isn’t waiting".

Esteemed speakers at this webinar include:

• SPECIAL ADDRESS: Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, Director General of Health, MoH, Malaysia
• Dr Meg Doherty, Director, Global HIV, Hepatitis and Sexually Transmitted Infections Programmes, WHO
• Dr Bill Rodriguez, CEO, FIND
• Dr Ying-Ru Jacqueline Lo, Head of Mission and Representative to Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, and Singapore, WHO
• Jean-Michel Piedagnel, Director, DNDi South-East Asia
• Dr Nazrila Hairizan Nasir, Deputy Director (Primary Health), Family Health Development Division, MoH, Malaysia
• Datuk Dr Muhammad Radzi Abu Hassan, National Head of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, MoH, Malaysia
• Anu Karunanithy, Manager of Partnership and HIV-HCV Special Initiatives, MAC
• Sonjelle Shilton, Hepatitis Lead, FIND

You will hear from the speakers on Malaysia’s determination and continuous commitment towards hepatitis C elimination and how rapidly Malaysia is moving onto a hepatitis C virus self-testing (HCVST) pilot study right after WHO’s global launch of the 1st HCVST guidelines on 15 July 2021.

Set to be conducted in partnership with a community-based organisation, the Malaysian AIDS Council, the pilot HCVST study will build on existing work done for HIV self-testing via the online platform JOM TEST. The outcome of this pilot study will help guide effective roll-out and scale-up of HCVST services globally, reaching out to people who may otherwise have been missed by facility-based testing.