In 2010, two research scientists, frustrated with the lack of attention and movement associated in battling hepatitis, thought of setting up an advocacy group whose main purpose will be to push for public policy reform to reduce the burden of the disease in Asia-Pacific.
Without the necessary resources and with the two’s limited experience in advocacy work, however, it was difficult to get the idea off the ground.
But luck was on their side, and as Dr. Stephen Locarnini and Dr. Ding-Shinn Chen would later learn, all they really needed was to ask for help, which in their case came in the form of Jennifer Johnston, an advocacy expert who has been leading the Coalition for the Eradication of Viral Hepatitis in Asia-Pacific for the past five years.