Treat Patients with Life-Saving Hepatitis B Meds

Project Report | Mar 13, 2023
March 2023 Update

By DAVID HILMERS | Chief Medical Officer

GlobalGiving Project Report March 2023

To our valued support team,

We have just returned from a very successful trip to our hepatitis B project in Papua New Guinea from March 4-11, 2023. Because of COVID, this was our first visit to PNG since November 2019. During our trip we conducted three clinics at Mamba, Embi, and Siroga and also saw patients at Popondetta General Hospital. While our team concentrated on the care of patients infected with hepatitis B, we also saw uninfected patients with a wide range of medical problems. We saw approximately 200 patients, conducted nearly 300 rapid tests for hepatitis, and started about 40 patients on treatment. We were blessed to have Grace Moon, an expert sonographer, join our team whose insightful ultrasound interpretation greatly enhanced our diagnostic capabilities. We also initiated discussions with the CEO of Popondetta General Hospital and managers at NBPOL (the company that supports our efforts) to renew and revise our Memorandum of Understanding. As always, hepatitis B training of health care providers and public health education were important objectives. A general lecture and public forum was held during one evening gathering. Training of health care workers was done at each of the clinic sites and a half day lecture series was performed at Popondetta General Hospital. Donations of medical equipment such as vital signs monitors, birth kits, EKG machines, fetal heartbeat monitors, and pulse oximeters were carried with the team and distributed to the clinics and Popondetta General Hospital. One of our team members has a particular passion for childhood health education and gave several talks at local schools about hygiene and public health topics.

We were encouraged by the enthusiasm displayed by our colleagues in PNG. There is a growing realization by policy makers in PNG of the magnitude of the public health problem that hepatitis B presents. The unique partnership with a local business, the provincial health authority, government, and our non-profit NGO has become a widely recognized model to emulate. It is significant that our project is the only hepatitis B treatment program that exists in all of Papua New Guinea. We are hopeful that we can extend our model to other provinces in PNG. We have entered into negotiations to establish a similar program in the Milne Bay region and plan to return every 6 months.

We are also busy with our other projects in Tonga, Fiji, Kiribati, and Myanmar. Hopefully, we will have the opportunity to visit these locations within the next year. Our next new project will commence in April, 2023 when two of our team members will travel to Madagascar. Once again, we are so thankful for your support which helps us finance our treatment programs, bringing hope to areas greatly affected by this insidious disease.

With great appreciation,

David

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Nov 28, 2022
December 2022 Project Update

By David Hilmers | Chief Medical Officer

Outer island clinic

To our faithful partners around the world.

Season’s greetings to all of you! We pray for peace on earth and good health to each of you as we approach the end of 2022. We are happy to report that HepBFree completed our first team trip to one of our overseas projects since the start of the pandemic curtailed our travel.

During our trip to Kiribati from October 31-November 10, 2022, our group of 3 doctors and 2 nurses made a number of accomplishments:

-We provided direct patient care in 2 hospitals on the main island of South Tarawa and at 3 villages in one of the outer islands. This care included upper endoscopy, colonoscopy, attending rounds on the internal medicine wards, hepatitis B clinics at each location, Fibroscan (to determine if liver fibrosis or cirrhosis is present), ultrasound evaluation, lab testing using point of care tests for hepatitis B, and distribution of anti-virals for hepatitis B.

-We donated over 6000 rapid hepatitis B test kits.

-We started over 100 patients on anti-viral treatment for hepatitis B.

-We donated 3 Olympus 190 endoscopes and a colonoscope. Endoscopy had not been available in Kiribati for over 3 years because of lack of equipment.

-We trained several local physicians to perform upper endoscopy and colonoscopy.

-We performed 18 upper endoscopies, including banding of varices and 2 colonoscopies, which revealed a colon cancer in one patient.

-We tested over 500 patients in the outer islands for hepatitis B. Seventy-four of these were positive (prevalence of about 15%) and were started on treatment.

-We met with the nation’s Minister of Health and discussed further funding opportunities and strategies to eradicate hepatitis from the country.

-We coordinated our efforts with other organizations working in Kiribati on antenatal care and tuberculosis surveillance by offering hepatitis test kits to their projects.

As always, we were struck by the lack of resources that are available, particularly in the outer islands. All treatment for hepatitis, which affects about 15% of the population, is a result of the generous donations that you have made. We plan to continue our efforts to secure additional grants, as our previous grant has now been completed. We will return for our next trip in the summer of 2023.

The new year plans to be busy for us as we juggle our “day jobs” along with trips to our projects. In February and March we will visit Papua New Guinea with hopes of expanding our presence to the capital, Port Moresby, and Milne Bay. In April two of our team will travel to Madagascar to investigate the initiation of a new hepatitis project there.

We thank you for your gracious and faithful support over many years. We look forward to regaining the momentum that we lost during the pandemic and working with you to eradicate hepatitis around the world.

With gratitude,

David Hilmers and the HepBFree Team

Endoscopy team

Boarding boat to outer islands

Fibroscan in use

Testing children for hepatitis B

HepB Free team and local colleagues

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Sep 9, 2022
September 2022 Project Update

By David C. Hilmers, MD | Chief Medical Officer

Dear Team,

We send greetings to all our gracious supporters. We are hopeful that the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic is behind us now, and our medical team is looking forward to returning to visit some of our established projects and to start new ones.

Our first major journey will take a team of doctors and nurses to Kiribati from October 31 to November 10, 2022. We plan to provide hands-on teaching, classroom lectures, and clinical guidance as we evaluate old and new patients. We will be focusing on our program to interrupt the transmission of hepatitis B from mother to child which is the most common method by which our patients acquire the disease. We will also be extending our outreach to some of the outer islands where the clinics are not as well equipped. We will be bringing supplies, including endoscopy equipment, that have been donated or purchased with your generous gifts.

In February-March 2023 another team has been organized to travel to Papua New Guinea. In addition to our long-standing project in Popondetta, we will be speaking with national and local governmental officials as well as business executives in Port Moresby and Milne Bay. We hope to establish other provincial and possibly national hepatitis B programs in PNG where liver disease has a very high prevalence.

In April 2023 we will travel to Madagascar with an organization called Australian Doctor for Africa (ADFA). This group has been working in Madagascar for many years, and we have had virtual meetings with the local physicians who will assist us in establishing hepatitis programs in the areas where they practice. This is an exciting opportunity to extend our presence into Africa.

We are hopeful that a return to Tonga will follow thereafter. We have been working with the World Health Organization to write national guidelines and provide further assistance to the program which started just as the COVID pandemic was evolving. Our partners in Myanmar continue to do amazing work under the most difficult circumstances. We have regular meetings via the internet to discuss patient care and teach topics of interest. Communication with North Korea is still non-existent, but we pray for a revival of the program there, which in the past was our largest.

These are exciting times, and we are thankful to each of you for your continued support. Take care of yourselves and each other.

With gratitude,

David

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