March 2026 Update

Dear supporters and friends,

We sincerely hope that you have been safe and in good health during these perilous times. We greatly appreciate your donations, prayers and support for our projects even while there are so many other issues that demand your attention.

Hepatitis B Free sent a team of three to Kiribati in March to provide training and direct patient care.

Over two weeks, our team worked at clinics throughout South Tarawa and trained new medical staff members. This year marks the 10 th anniversary of the start of our hepatitis program in this geographically diverse island nation. We are happy to announce that we feel confident that the project is now self-sustaining, and we have turned program responsibility over to Kiribati medical staff and the Ministry of Health. We have seen our labors bear fruit, and we feel that the Kiribati team has been provided with all the tools necessary to sustain the program using local resources.

Over the decade that we have worked together much progress has been made in building local expertise and general public health literacy; improving vaccine access; providing clinical decision support tools and donations of equipment such as a Fibroscan machine, medications, test kits and endoscopy equipment; and initiating programs to strengthen prevention of maternal to child transmission, adherence, and hepatitis B/D surveillance. We will continue to consult on an “as needed” basis and will channel the financial support that we received from the Australian government for our hepatitis programs to the Kiribati Ministry of Health and Medical Services.

In two weeks Drs. Lee and Hilmers will travel to Tonga to start a hepatitis treatment project on one of the larger outer islands, Ha’apai. We will be working with partners from New Zealand who are co- funding the project. Previously, we have worked with doctors on the main island, but this will be our first outreach to other parts of the Kingdom. There are always major challenges in training, testing, and treatment, but we have gained considerable experience working in outer islands in Kiribati and are hoping to put this to good use.

Elsewhere, we have received inquiries from the Solomon Islands and Samoa about starting hepatitis treatment projects, and we are planning trips to these Pacific countries later this year. Partner sites in Papua New Guinea, Mongolia, and Madagascar will also be destinations for the team during 2026.

At home in Australia, we continue to support public hepatitis education to ethnic groups. In February we passed out hepatitis awareness materials at a Mongolian festival in Sydney.

Thanks so much for your generous gifts, prayers, and support. Please contact us at: hepatitisbfree@gmail.com if you have any questions or are interested in furthering our mission!

Best wishes,

David

Chief Medical Officer