Our focus
Viral hepatitis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality at a global level. In Denmark the diseases primarily cause significant morbidity in certain risk groups. As part of the WHO elimination plan for hepatitis B and C our team has launched the “C-Free-South” initiative aiming to achieve control of chronic viral hepatitis in our region (and Denmark) prior to 2030. Our goal is to be the first region in Denmark to meet WHO's targets of diagnosing 90% of HCV patients and treating 80% of them.
The hepatitis team is part of the Research unit of infectious Diseases at Department of Infectious Diseases at Odense University hospital and the University of Southern Denmark. The HEP-team consist currently of a dozen researchers; from medical students to post doc fellows and is headed by professor Peer Brehm Christensen. We have been involved in all aspects of viral hepatitis research since the 90ties: epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment and prevention and have published >150 scientific publications as well as 10 PhD thesis over the years.
Our current focus is to bring the scientific advancements out to the patients as part of an elimination strategy. Patients with chronic viral hepatitis may have little contact to the health care system and some groups are socially deprived. We have developed methods to reach these groups, ranging from sophisticated mathematical modeling of patient population size, over reach-out diagnosis with implementing “point of care” testing to investor initiated clinical trials of short treatment with directly acting antivirals for HCV. We have implemented our research in prisons, drug treatment centers and shelters and the last five years we have run a mobile unit offering low threshold test and treatment for HCV at street level in the whole region.
Research
We manage the national database DANVIR, which contains all laboratory results for hepatitis B and C in Denmark, hosted by the Region of Southern Denmark. We participate also in the national clinical database DANHEP.
We are presently conducting the third Danish national estimate of population size for chronic hepatitis B and C combining multiple registers using capture-recapture modelling.
In collaboration with the department of Clinical Immunology at OUH, we have developed point of care tests for viral hepatitis and HIV and are currently expanding this to sexually transmitted diseases, using both quick test and DBS (dry blood spot test). We were the first in Scandinavia to introduce non-invasive cirrhosis diagnostics with elastography (Fibroscan) and are currently expanding this to several outreach project, in prisons, drug treatment centers and at street level (“the Line C bus”).
As part of the “C-Free-South” initiative our aim is to identify and treat all patients with HCV in the Region of Southern Denmark. This is done in close collaboration with the 15 drug treatment centers in our region. We also conduct screening projects among risk groups in emergency rooms and among psychiatric patients. We are currently expanding this to a national level in collaboration with drug treatment centers and NGOs in order to test and treat HCV all persons who have attended treatment centers for drug use. These project are supported by the Region of Southern Denmark and the National Board of Health in Denmark.
We are conducting an observational study “Rehep” to monitor reinfection among active injectors cured for hepatitis C in Funen.
Together with the Region of Southern Denmark we host a national conference on viral hepatitis elimination each year and several of the above-mentioned projects have had significant political attention nationwide.
Research collaboration:
National
Jens Bukh, Professor, Copenhagen Hepatitis Program University of Copenhagen Henrik Krarup, Professor, Dept. of Molecular Diagnostics Aalborg University Hospital, Alex Lauersen, ass. Professor, Dept. of Infectious Diseases Aarhus University Hospital, Nina Weis, Professor Dept. of Infectious Diseases Copenhagen University Hospital“Users Academy” (NGO for active drug uses) Copenhagen
International
Olav Dalgard, Professor, Dept. of Infectious Diseases Akershus University hospital Oslo, Norway, Ann-Sofie Duberg, ass. Professor, Dept. of Infectious Diseases Örebro University Hospital, Sweden, Martin Kåberg, Dept. of medicine, Huddinge, Karolinska Institut, Stockholm, Sweden, Magnus Gottfredsson, Professor, Dept. of Infectious Diseases, National University Hospital of Iceland, Heiner Wedemeyer Professor, Dept. of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endocrinology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover Germany, John Dillon, Professor, Division of Molecular and Clinical Medicine, University of Dundee, Scotland, UK, Matthew Hickman, Professor, Population Health Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol UK Gordon Hay, Reader in Social Epidemiology, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK, Homie Razavi Center for Disease Analysis Foundation, Lafayette, USA
