AfricaNPUD, via its Secretary Mr. Ahmed Said and Mrs. Happy Asan, Women representative took part in the 1st Regional Conference on Hepatitis Care in Substance Users, held in Cape Town, South Africa.
Session on the Advocacy meeting where by different stakeholders from WHO, MdM, AfricaNPUD and other organizations from Western Africa had to set the pace on plenaly discussion. It is from this seating that AfricaNPUD suggested on the African declaration on HCV prevention and treatment plan in Africa.
The goal was to bring together people to cover the latest advances on the epidemiology, public health, prevention, clinical management, and policy related to hepatitis C and health care for people who use drugs, with a specific focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. Attendees included people living with viral hepatitis, people who use drugs, advocates, health care providers, programme managers, harm reduction experts, researchers, the pharmaceutical industry, and policy-makers.
Mrs Happy Assan, presenting on HCV and PWID during the INHSU 2020 Conference. Happy also facilitated on Integrated community-based interventions of which she addressed the issue of gender-diversity approach.
The major objectives of the INHSU 2020 Africa Conference are to discuss:
- Epidemiology of hepatitis C, other infectious diseases, and drug use among people who use drugs in Africa
- The global WHO targets for hepatitis C elimination and how these can be achieved in Africa
- Good practices for enhancing hepatitis C prevention, testing and treatment for people who use drugs
- Integration of care for hepatitis C, drug user health, HIV and other infectious diseases in Africa
- How modelling and health economics can inform public health decision making
- How the WHO health systems framework can be addressed to facilitate improvements in HCV prevention and care
- Community-based work to support hepatitis C prevention, harm reduction, treatment and care for people who use drugs to identify ways this can be replicated across different settings
In the same way of advocacy, AfricaNPUD became officially a member of the international Drug Policy Consortium « IDPC ». At that level, it is represented by its coordinator Mr. Richard NININAHAZWE. AfricaNPUD signed the African civil society common position on drugs.