Bulgaria Launches Development of National Hepatitis Plan

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• Publié par: european-liver-patients-association
• Nombre de lectures: 25
• Langue: English

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Bulgaria Launches Development of National

Hepatitis Plan

PR Newswire

SOFIA, Bulgaria, July 3, 2012

SOFIA, Bulgaria

,

July 3, 2012

/PRNewswire/ --

The Bulgarian Health Minister together with the European Liver Patient

Association (ELPA) will initiate on 5 July the development of a National Hepatitis

Plan in the context of a roundtable discussion with international experts on viral

hepatitis in the Bulgarian Parliament.

This roundtable marks the beginning of a series of actions to raise the visibility

of viral Hepatitis worldwide with the main milestone of World Hepatitis Day

taking place every 28

th

July.

Bulgarian Health Minister, Desislava Atanasova, says on the National Bulgarian

Hepatitis Plan: "Despite being one of the poorest countries in the EU,

Bulgaria

will take on the challenge to develop and implement a National Hepatitis Plan".

The only other two regions in

Europe

that have developed and implemented a

national hepatitis plan in

Europe

are

Scotland

and

France

.

Ms Atanasova outlined some of the elements the national plan will develop,

among these, and "prevention and education for citizens and improving the

access to screening and to treatment will receive greater attention".

ELPA's President Tatjana Reic, highlights the difficulties to diagnose viral

hepatitis as this disease can be present for a long period asymptomatically: "It

is difficult to have a fix picture of patients suffering from hepatitis in

Bulgaria

.

The last official research dates back 15 years ago and ELPA estimates that

there are over 500,000 people in

Bulgaria

affected by Hepatitis B and C."

The second part of the roundtable is dedicated to an exchange of best practice

in Member States. Ms Reic explains: "the aim is to decrease the number of new

infections and to improve the quality of life of patients suffering from Hepatitis

B or C on a national level."

The roundtable will bring together experts from different organisations

including the European Commission, ECDC, WHO the EASL, ELPA , experts

from

France

and

Scotland

, EPF or WHA among others.

In support of this initiative, ELPA has commissioned Health Consumer

Powerhouse (HCP) to develop a Euro Hepatitis Index ranking EU Member States

(plus

Norway

,

Croatia

and

Switzerland

) according to their performance in

Hepatitis B and C care. The index will be a powerful tool for improving the

treatment of viral hepatitis related diseases and is expected to be launched in

October 2012

in

Brussels

.

W: http://www.elpa-info.org