Workshop on hepatitis diagnostics in resource-poor countries, The Ethiopia-Norway hepatitis network

Viral hepatitis affects hundreds of millions worldwide, causing illness and death from acute infection, liver cancer and liver cirrhosis. There are available measures to control the spread of viral hepatitis infections, but the awareness of these diseases is low. The diagnostic and management of hepatitis is highly important for infectious disease control, particular for hepatitis B and C that may cause chronic infection. Laboratory diagnosis is required to distinguish viral agents causing hepatitis. For the patients it is important to clarify the infection status (acute/chronic/Immunized/past) with regard to transmission and management/treatment. There are effective therapies for hepatitis B and C requiring close laboratory monitoring.Reliable diagnostic s is also important for; providing safe blood products, estimate disease burden, surveillance and quality in research. Our experience from Ethiopia is that the diagnostic tests are of poor quality giving unspecific and hence unreliable results. Transmissi on of hepatitis through unsafe practices is a problem in health-care settings, as well as cultural practices. The available data on prevalence of the different hepatitis infections are limited and old, and the surveillance on these diseases is non-excitin g. The epidemiology of hepatitis is dependent on the regional context. Available tools for prevention and control need to be evidence based and tailor to the context. The project will be a 5 day workshop on viral hepatitis diagnostics and patient manageme nt with Norwegian and Ethiopian partners to build network in the field of microbiology and infectious medicines, as well as collaboration and capacity for research on hepatitis. The workshop will be both practical and theoretical and cover all the viral h epatitis (A, B, C, D and E) epidemiology, infectious control, diagnostics and treatment. The ultimate result of the workshop will be useful for implementing modern diagnostics of hepatitis in any low-income country