• DNDi logo
  • Our work
    • Diseases
      • Sleeping sickness
      • Visceral leishmaniasis
      • Cutaneous leishmaniasis
      • Chagas disease
      • Filaria: river blindness
      • Mycetoma
      • Paediatric HIV
      • Cryptococcal meningitis
      • Hepatitis C
      • Dengue
      • COVID-19
      • Antimicrobial resistance
    • Research & development
      • R&D portfolio & list of projects
      • Drug discovery
      • Translational research
      • Clinical trials
      • Registration & access
      • Treatments delivered
    • Advocacy
      • Open and collaborative R&D
      • Transparency of R&D costs
      • Pro-access policies
  • Networks & partners
    • Partnerships
      • Our partners
      • Partnering with us
    • Global networks
      • Chagas Platform
      • HAT Platform
      • HELP Helminth Elimination Platform
      • LEAP Platform
      • redeLEISH Network
    • DNDi worldwide
      • DNDi Global Headquarters
      • DNDi DRC
      • DNDi East Africa
      • DNDi Japan
      • DNDi Latin America
      • DNDi North America
      • DNDi South Asia
      • DNDi South-East Asia
      • DNDi Southern Africa
  • News & resources
    • News & stories
      • News
      • Stories
      • Statements
      • Viewpoints
      • Social media
      • eNews Newsletter
    • Press
      • Press releases
      • In the media
    • Resources
      • Scientific articles
      • Our publications
      • Videos
    • Events
  • About us
    • About
      • Who we are
      • How we work
      • Our strategy
      • Our donors
      • Annual reports
    • Our people
      • Our leadership
      • Our governance
      • Contact us
    • Work with us
      • Working at DNDi
      • Job opportunities
      • Requests for proposal
  • Donate
DNDi logo
  • DNDi logo
  • Our work
    • Diseases
      • Sleeping sickness
      • Visceral leishmaniasis
      • Cutaneous leishmaniasis
      • Chagas disease
      • Filaria: river blindness
      • Mycetoma
      • Paediatric HIV
      • Cryptococcal meningitis
      • Hepatitis C
      • Dengue
      • COVID-19
      • Antimicrobial resistance
    • Research & development
      • R&D portfolio & list of projects
      • Drug discovery
      • Translational research
      • Clinical trials
      • Registration & access
      • Treatments delivered
    • Advocacy
      • Open and collaborative R&D
      • Transparency of R&D costs
      • Pro-access policies
  • Networks & partners
    • Partnerships
      • Our partners
      • Partnering with us
    • Global networks
      • Chagas Platform
      • HAT Platform
      • HELP Helminth Elimination Platform
      • LEAP Platform
      • redeLEISH Network
    • DNDi worldwide
      • DNDi Global Headquarters
      • DNDi DRC
      • DNDi East Africa
      • DNDi Japan
      • DNDi Latin America
      • DNDi North America
      • DNDi South Asia
      • DNDi South-East Asia
      • DNDi Southern Africa
  • News & resources
    • News & stories
      • News
      • Stories
      • Statements
      • Viewpoints
      • Social media
      • eNews Newsletter
    • Press
      • Press releases
      • In the media
    • Resources
      • Scientific articles
      • Our publications
      • Videos
    • Events
  • About us
    • About
      • Who we are
      • How we work
      • Our strategy
      • Our donors
      • Annual reports
    • Our people
      • Our leadership
      • Our governance
      • Contact us
    • Work with us
      • Working at DNDi
      • Job opportunities
      • Requests for proposal
  • Donate
Home > Press releases

Nationwide hepatitis C screening campaign initiated by the Malaysian Ministry of Health

Supported by Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative & Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics, campaign seeks to find the “missing millions” for this silent but curable disease

Home > Press releases

Nationwide hepatitis C screening campaign initiated by the Malaysian Ministry of Health

Supported by Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative & Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics, campaign seeks to find the “missing millions” for this silent but curable disease

One of the clinical volunteers from Hospital Tengku Ampuan Afzan (HTAA) preparing to screen a woman for hepatitis C
One of the clinical volunteers from Hospital Tengku Ampuan Afzan (HTAA) preparing to screen a woman for hepatitis C
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia — 17 Jul 2019
Share on twitter
Share on facebook
Share on linkedin
Share on email
Share on print
  • English
    • English
    • Malay
    • 中文
    • ไทย

The Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) are partnering with the Ministry of Health (MOH) in Malaysia to launch the country’s biggest-ever screening initiative for the hepatitis C virus (HCV).

The #MYmissingmillions campaign, announced ahead of World Hepatitis Day 2019, aims to raise awareness of the importance of early HCV diagnosis and to ensure that all Malaysians have the opportunity to be tested and receive highly effective treatment, for free. It is estimated that there are around 400,000 people living with hepatitis C in Malaysia. More than 71 million people worldwide are chronically infected, over 80% of whom live in low- and middle-income countries. It’s a silent epidemic, as the huge majority of those infected are not aware of their status, show no symptoms of the disease, and therefore do not seek treatment.

The partnership will offer Malaysians, especially those considered to be at high risk, the opportunity to be screened for free in July using a simple rapid diagnostic test at more than 100 hospitals, primary healthcare centres and FIND study sites located across the country’s 14 states. All patients confirmed as having active HCV (viremia) will be linked to care at local government healthcare facilities where direct-acting antiviral therapy is available.

The #MYmissingmillions campaign is part of the Malaysian MOH’s wider efforts to simplify and decentralize hepatitis C screening and treatment. The Malaysian national HCV programme, following an ambitious treatment strategy to overcome the prohibitively high cost of treatments in the country, offers free hepatitis C treatment (sofosbuvir/daclatasvir) in government hospitals.

DNDi and FIND hope that their support can further propel the government’s strategy to find the #MYmissingmillions.

About hepatitis C

HCV is one of the world’s most common infectious diseases, usually contracted through unsafe healthcare and injection drug use. Globally, more than 71 million people are chronically infected, over 80% of whom live in low- and middle-income countries – but only one in five people know they have the disease. Around 400,000 people die every year, and the mortality rate is increasing, making it a global health priority: the World Health Organization (WHO) has set an ambitious target of viral hepatitis elimination by 2030. In Malaysia, HCV disease burden is high and predicted to rise steeply over the coming decades, leading to a projected 63,900 HCV-related deaths by 2039. For further information, please visit www.dndi.org

About FIND

FIND is a global non-profit organization that drives innovation in the development and delivery of diagnostics to combat major diseases affecting the world’s poorest populations. Our work bridges R&D to access, overcoming scientific barriers to technology development; generating evidence for regulators and policy-makers; addressing market failures; and enabling accelerated uptake and access to diagnostics in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Since 2003, we have been instrumental in the delivery of 24 new diagnostic tools. Over 50 million FIND-supported products have been provided to 150 LMICs since the start of 2015. A WHO Collaborating Centre, we work with more than 200 academic, industry, governmental, and civil society partners worldwide, on over 70 active projects that cross six priority disease areas. FIND is committed to a future in which diagnostics underpin treatment decisions and provide the foundation for disease surveillance, control, and prevention. For further information, please visit www.finddx.org

About DNDi

The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) is a not-for-profit R&D organization working to deliver new treatments for neglected patients, in particular for sleeping sickness, Chagas disease, leishmaniasis, filaria, mycetoma, paediatric HIV/AIDS, and hepatitis C virus (HCV). DNDi’s ambition is to enable access to HCV treatment, through the development and registration of affordable, safe, and efficacious pan-genotypic direct-acting antivirals (DAAs), and by supporting policy change and political will to remove barriers to access to DAAs globally. www.dndi.org

Media contact

DNDi South East Asia: Molly Jagpal
+60 (0)12 546 8362
mjagpal@dndi.org

DNDi Geneva:
media@dndi.org

FIND: Sarah-Jane Loveday, Head of Communications
+41 (0) 22 710 27 88
+41 (0) 79 431 62 44
media@finddx.org

Partnership Registration & access Hepatitis C

Read, watch, share

Loading...
Laboratory activities
Press releases
18 May 2022

Consortium formed to discover antivirals for COVID-19 receives NIH funding to develop globally accessible treatments for pandemics

Researcher working in a laboratory setting
News
18 May 2022

Health Journalists from Africa receive grants to report on COVID-19

After a serious outbreak of dengue fever in the Chinatown area of Bangkok in which a man died, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration came in to fumigate the area and advise locals on possible breeding ground of mosquitos.
Press releases
29 Apr 2022

Ministry of Health, Malaysia and Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative combine forces to lead the battle against dengue

News
22 Apr 2022

DNDi calls for nominations for a new Audit Committee Member

Microscope and computer
Press releases
20 Apr 2022

DNDi and BenevolentAI collaborate to accelerate life-saving drug discovery research in dengue

Woman looking up
Stories
13 Apr 2022

Early diagnosis and treatment can save millions of lives

Statements
12 Apr 2022

DNDi intervention at the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body first round of public hearings

Dr Monique Wasunna, Eastern Africa Regional Director, DNDi; Carole Lanteri, Ambassador and Permanent Representative at UNOG for the Government of the Principality of Monaco; Dr Bernard Pécoul, Executive Director, DNDi
Press releases
8 Apr 2022

Government of the Principality of Monaco supports DNDi to increase access to improved treatment for children with HIV

VIEW ALL

Help neglected patients

To date, we have delivered nine new treatments, saving millions of lives.

Our goal is to deliver 25 new treatments in our first 25 years. You can help us get there. 

GIVE NOW
DNDi logo
Facebook-f
Twitter
Instagram
Linkedin-in
Youtube
International non-profit developing safe, effective, and affordable treatments for the most neglected patients.

Learn more

  • Diseases
  • R&D portfolio
  • Policy advocacy

Get in touch

  • Our offices
  • Contact us
  • Integrity Line

Support us

  • Donate
  • Subscribe to eNews

Work with us

  • Join research networks
  • Jobs
  • RFPs
  • Terms of Use   
  •   Acceptable Use Policy   
  •   Privacy Policy   
  •   Cookie Policy   
  •   Our policies   

  • Except for images, films and trademarks which are subject to DNDi’s Terms of Use, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Switzerland License