News

On Thursday, May 7th 2026, CanHepC joined Action Hepatitis Canada, CanHepB, the HIV Legal Network and CATIE to mark the 5th annual Canadian Viral Hepatitis Elimination Day in Ottawa. 

Canada committed to the World Health Organization’s targets for viral hepatitis elimination, but we are falling behind. CanHepC co-director Dr Jordan Feld said in the press conference regarding Hepatitis C Elimination:  

''This is a marathon; it’s definitely not a sprint. Any runner will tell you that it is the last few miles or a marathon that are the hardest, but also the most important. We are here today to remind Canadians and particularly our governments at the federal, provincial, territorial and even the municipal levels that we have come a long way in this race, and it’s not time to slow down; it’s time to redouble our efforts. These last few miles will be the hardest of the race, but if we don’t stay committed, we will lose all the progress that we’ve made.'' 

September 30th is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation: a day to honour the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children who never returned home and Survivors of residential schools, and their families and communities.  The Canadian Network on Hepatitis C (CanHepC) honours the strength, resilience, and lived experiences of Indigenous peoples. We recognize the enduring impacts of colonialism and the intergenerational trauma caused by residential schools and other systemic injustices.    

July 28, 2025 – World Hepatitis Day is a time to remember the 1.3 million lives lost annually to chronic viral hepatitis (B & C) and to call for urgent, coordinated, global action to eliminate viral hepatitis as a global public health threat by 2030. This is also a time to raise awareness about viral hepatitis, which causes inflammation of the liver and can lead to severe liver disease and liver cancer.  

This year’s theme, “Hepatitis: Let’s break it down,” is a call for action to dismantle the financial, social, and systemic barriers—including stigma—to hepatitis elimination. It’s also a call to break down misunderstandings about viral hepatitis, a preventable and curable disease that is often overlooked.  

New Report: Scaling Up Needle and Syringe Programs
Co-authored by CanHepC Investigators Drs. Guillaume Fontaine, Adelina Artenie and Jason Grebely, this report provides an evidence-based roadmap to strengthen harm reduction globally using implementation science.

Canadian Viral Hepatitis Elimination Day is marked each year on May 11th. On Thursday, May 8, 2025, CanHepC will join Action Hepatitis Canada, CanHepB, the Canadian Association for the Study of the Liver (CASL), and Liver Canada to mark the 4th annual Canadian Viral Hepatitis Elimination Day, this year in Toronto.

With the upcoming federal election, CanHepC, CASL, CanMASLD, CAHN and CanHepB sent a joint letter to Prime Minister Carney, federal party leaders Poilievre, Blanchet and Singh, and all other MPs, requesting they demonstrate their strong commitment to science and evidence-based public health decision making in their election campaigns. 

CanHepC held its Annual Meeting and 14^th Canadian Symposium on Hepatitis C Virus in Québec City on February 27^th and 28th, 2025.

The CanHepC Annual Meeting and Symposium are annual highlights for the network. Over two days, members and invited guests were engaged in discussions about the network's research, training program and future direction as well as hearing presentations about advances in HCV research, programs and practices. These events showcase the incredible strength of the network and its impact within Canada and globally. 

In partnership with CATIE and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), CanHepC is excited to share a new report highlighting key themes and recommendations that emerged from the Pan-Canadian Hepatitis C Elimination Meeting: Sharing Progress, Igniting Efforts. 

On August 20^th, 2024, the Ontario government announced their plan to ban supervised consumption sites within 200 meters of schools and child care centers. 

World Hepatitis Day on July 28 is a day to remember the million lives that are lost to viral hepatitis and to call for more actions to accelerate its elimination. 

Thursday 9 May, 2024 marks the 3rd annual Canadian Viral Hepatitis Elimination Day (CanHepDay).

CanHepC held its member’s Annual Meeting and 13^th Canadian Symposium on Hepatitis C Virus in Toronto on February 29^th and March 1^st, 2024.

CanHepC’s Annual Meeting is a one-day gathering that convenes all our member investigators, knowledge users, student trainees, collaborators, and guests as well as members of our International Advisory Board (Drs Frederick Altice & Megan Williams). This year in Toronto, 73 people attended the meeting.

July 28 is World Hepatitis Day, a day to call for change and remember the million lives that are lost to viral hepatitis ever year.

Thursday May 11^th, 2023 marks the 2^nd annual Canadian Viral Hepatitis Elimination Day (CanHepDay). 

CanHepC held its member’s Annual Meeting and 12^th Canadian Symposium on Hepatitis C Virus (CSHCV) in Halifax on March 2-3, 2023.

September 30^th, 2022 is National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in honor of the lost children and Survivors of residential schools, their families and communities.

A CanHepC study explores the barriers and enablers to implementing opt-out hepatitis C screening in Quebec’s provincial prisons.

Today, July 28^th, is World Hepatitis Day. For the occasion, we’ve regrouped different initiatives, online tools, articles, videos and other activities organised by CanHepC and our partners.

July 28 is a day to call for action and raise awareness on the global burden of viral hepatitis which impacts over 325 million people in the world.

CanHepC’s flagship meeting, the 11^th Canadian Symposium on HCV (CSHCV) took place on May 13, 2022 as part of the Canadian Liver Meeting.

The CanHepC trainee fellowship competition provides transdisciplinary training and stipends to exceptional university graduates at various stages of their academic and professional career.

CanHepC held its 7^th Annual Meeting on May 12, 2022 in person in Ottawa gathering 67 of our member investigators, knowledge users, collaborators, and trainees.

September 30^th, 2021 will mark Canada’s first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in honor of the lost children and Survivors of residential schools, their families and communities.

In this recent study published in Nature Immunology, researchers found exhausted T cells retained epigenetic ‘scars’ restraining their optimal recovery even after cure of chronic infection.

The rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been aided by our efforts to understand other pathogens such as hepatitis viruses, and in turn, there are lessons learned from SARS-CoV-2 to combat the viral hepatitis pandemic. 

Action Hepatitis Canada has prepared a hepatitis elimination 2021 progress report in Canada. 

July 28 is World Hepatitis Day, a day to take action and raise awareness on viral hepatitis globally. 

The CanHepC trainee fellowship competition provides transdisciplinary training and stipends to exceptional university graduates at various stages of their academic and professional career.

A new meeting was inaugurated at the Canadian Liver Meeting (CLM) in May this year: the North American Hepatitis Elimination Summit.

CanHepC held its 6^th Annual Meeting on April 23, 2021 gathering 77 of our member investigators, knowledge users, collaborators, and trainees.

The 2020 Nobel Prize of Medicine has been awarded jointly to trio of pioneers Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice for the discovery of hepatitis C virus.

Open letter

Raising awareness on the burden of viral hepatitis worldwide, the World Hepatitis Day campaign on July 28, 2020 reminds us of the global commitments made to eliminate viral hepatitis by 2030. 

A CanHepC study published in the JAMA Network Open estimated the national hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment rates to sustain in Canada to meet the World Health Organization (WHO) HCV elimination targets by 2030.

The 5^th CanHepC Annual Meeting took place in Montreal on February 27, 2020 gathering over 80 of our member investigators, knowledge users, collaborators, and trainees.

The 9^th Canadian Symposium on Hepatitis C Virus (CSHCV) took place in Montreal on Friday 28 February 2020 as part of the Canadian Liver Meeting, a 3-day meeting co-organised by CanHepC, the Canadian Association for the Study of the Liver and the Canadian Association of Hepatology Nurses.

The recipients of the 9^th Canadian Symposium on Hepatitis C Virus (CSHCV) 2020 trainee poster & oral presentations awards are:

Annually, CanHepC extends fellowships to provide transdisciplinary training and stipend support to Canadian involved in hepatitis C research, who are university graduates at various stages of their academic and professional career.

Congratulations to all our members receiving the Canadian Liver Foundation 50^th Anniversary Recognition Medal for their impact on liver health research over the years and continued support to the Canadian Liver Foundation.

Sunday 28 July marked World Hepatitis Day, a global health awareness day on viral hepatitis. 

There was excitement in the air as the CanHepC Blueprint to inform hepatitis C elimination efforts in Canada was launched at the 8^th Canadian Symposium on Hepatitis C Virus (CSHCV) and the inaugural of the Canadian Liver Meeting in Montreal on May 24^th, 2019.

The 4th CanHepC Annual Meeting took place in Montreal on May 23, 2019 gathering over 90 of our member investigators, knowledge users, collaborators, and trainees.

Annually, CanHepC extends fellowships to provide transdisciplinary training and stipend support to Canadian involved in hepatitis C research, who are university graduates at various stages of their academic and professional career.

The recipients of the 8^th Canadian Symposium on Hepatitis C Virus (CSHCV) poster & oral presentations awards are:

The 8^th Canadian Symposium on Hepatitis C Virus (CSHCV) took place in Montreal on Friday 24 May, 2019 as part of the Canadian Liver Meeting (CLM), a 3-day meeting co-organised by CanHepC, the Canadian Association for the Study of the Liver (CASL) and the Canadian Association of Hepatology Nurses (CAHN).

Blueprint Launch session

Join CanHepC for a webinar on March 13, 2019, at 11 a.m. EST on the Blueprint to inform a hepatitis C elimination strategy in Canada. This webinar will present the outlines and highlights of the Blueprint draft in view of getting broad feedback from participants.

This past July 28th marked World Hepatitis Day, a global awareness day on viral hepatitis. For this occasion, CanHepC trainees joined forces to organise several outreach activities aiming to raise the profile of viral hepatitis among the public and local communities.