Research Programmes
Research

VH-COMSAVAC

Viral Hepatitis COMmunity Screening, Vaccination, and Care

Duration
01/11/2022 - 31/10/2024
Coordinator
Jeffrey Lazarus
Funded by
EU4H European Commission

In 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a global strategy with the goal to eliminate viral hepatitis as a major public health threat by 2030 and set targets to reduce viral hepatitis cases by 90% and hepatitis-related deaths by 65%. The strategy also called for health systems to improve outreach and testing, such that 90% of those unaware of their status are diagnosed and, of these, 80% of people living with HBV and HCV be on treatment by 2030.

Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan was updated in 2021 and sets out specific objectives to reduce cancer-related morbidity and mortality across Europe. The objective to prevent cancers caused by HBV and HCV infections is included in this renewed Plan.

Photo: Candelaria Nazar

The objective of this project is to scale-up and adapt community-based viral hepatitis (HBV and HCV) testing and HBV vaccination models of care among migrant and refugee populations with documented high HBV and HCV incidence and prevalence using simplified diagnostic tools and person-centred referral processes to reduce liver cancer-associated mortality. This project will be carried out in Italy, Greece, and Spain and is coordinated by ISGlobal. 

The project will have a 2-year duration and includes partners in Spain (Salud Entre Culturas), Italy (the Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granada Ospedale Maggiore Policlino, Milan; Hospital San Raffaele, and Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan), and Greece (Prometheus; Athens).
 

Photo: Candelaria Nazar

External Advisory Board Members 

Associated Partners 

Total funding 

€1 million 

Our Team

Coordinator

  • Jeffrey Lazarus
    Jeffrey Lazarus Research Professor and Co-director of the Viral and Bacterial Infections Programme

ISGlobal team

Other projects

See Past Projects

COMBACTE

Combating Bacterial Resistance In Europe

GAMA

Development of Novel Gastrointestinal Biomarkers for Use in HIV Incidence Determination in a Sub-Saharan African Setting

COMBACTE-CARE

Combatting Bacterial Resistance in Europe - Carbapenem Resistance

INTE-AFRICA

Integrating and decentralizing diabetes and hypertension services in Africa

ICARIA

Improving Care through Azithromycin Research for Infants in Africa

PreFIT

Predicting the Future: Incipient Tuberculosis

ANTICOV

Large Clinical Trial in Africa on the Treatment of Mild Cases of COVID-19

Stool4TB

Evaluating a new stool based qPCR for diagnosis of tuberculosis in children and people living with HIV

Hepatitis C Free Baleares

Eliminating hepatitis C on the Balearic Islands (Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza): a study in governmental and non-governmental addiction service centres, a mobile methadone unit and a prison to test and link people who use drugs to HCV care.

TB-RECONNECT

Reconnecting Transmission to Global Tuberculosis Control by Mapping Pathogen Transmission Events to Host Infection Status

SToolNIH

Quantifiable stool-based TB PCR to Improve Diagnostics and Treatment Monitoring

END-VOC

ENDing COVID-19 Variants Of concern through Cohort studies (END-VOC)

TwinAir

Digital Twins Enabled Indoor Air Quality Management for Healthy Living

ENDÈMIC

Community knowledge generation through scientific culture, urban ecology and art

EpiGen

Building Scalable Pathogen Genomic Epidemiology in Ethiopia