The venerable U.S. Library of Congress hosted a first in its history: a symposium on Combating HIV and Hepatitis B held in Washington, D.C., on May 10, 2007. It was organized by Dr. Raymond Dwek, professor, the University of Oxford, and HBF senior scientific advisor. Dr. Dwek is currently on sabbatical as the 2007 Kluge Fellow of the Library of Congress.

The Hepatitis B Foundation was proud to co-sponsor this historic symposium in recognition of National Hepatitis B Awareness Week, which addressed the challenges in HIV vaccine development and the possibility of the eradication of hepatitis B. The event was free and open to the public, and webcast live to more than 30,000 listeners.

Despite the remarkable advances in hepatitis B – discovery of the virus, reliable blood test, safe vaccine and promising treatments – there are still 400 million people worldwide who remain chronically infected with hepatitis B, and as many as 100 million of these individuals will die from serious liver disease without intervention. The Hepatitis B Foundation believes the time is right to talk about the eradication of this disease to the significant advances in science and medicine.

Experts from the HBF who spoke about the opportunities and challenges in achieving this goal, and offered specific recommendations, included Dr. Timothy Block, HBF president and professor, Drexel University College of Medicine; Nobel laureate Dr. Baruch Blumberg, HBF Distinguished Scholar and senior member, Fox Chase Cancer Center; and Dr. Alison Evans, HBF director of Public Health Research and associate professor, Drexel University School of Public Health. In addition, Dr. John Ward, chief, Division of Viral Hepatitis at the Centers for Disease Control, gave a special presentation about the public health burden of hepatitis B