Center for Disease Analysis Foundation Announces First Round of Grantees for the CDAF-Relink Grant

The Center for Disease Analysis Foundation (CDA Foundation) is thrilled to announce the first-round recipients of the CDAF-Relink grant to connect Hepatitis B and C infected individuals in the United States back to care. The program is funded by an eight-million-dollar grant from Gilead Sciences (Nasdaq: GILD) as part of Gilead’s Relink grant program. In this first round, CDA Foundation distributed a total of 2.1 million dollars to the following 14 grantees:

“As a community-based non-profit organization,” remarked Angeline Nguyen, Program Manager at HBI, a grantee organization, “we are honored and grateful to receive the Relink grant. This opportunity allows us to re-engage about 1,000 of our clients who have tested positive for HBV and/or HCV; the majority need more assistance with finding care for their hepatitis treatment. HBI believes this project will make a meaningful impact on the under-served community we screen, as we assist with patient navigation services to help clients overcome barriers for linkage to care.”

Bridging the gap between the almost 3.3 million diagnosed but untreated Hepatitis B and C infected individuals in the United States and necessary care remains an important endeavor given the link between chronic viral hepatitis infection and increasing rates of cirrhosis, liver cancer, liver failure and premature deaths, as well as a constellation of associated illnesses. The effort rises in urgency considering the World Health Organization’s global target to eliminate viral hepatitis as a major public health threat by 2030 amidst persistent misunderstandings about the severity of disease, lack of follow up and delayed treatment commencement.

“CDA Foundation is very proud to have been selected to distribute these grants,” commented Homie Razavi, the Managing Director of CDA Foundation. “Loss of diagnosed but untreated patients is a major barrier for countries trying to achieve the viral hepatitis elimination targets. Our grantees will work with pregnant women, women of child-bearing age, low-income people, people in the inner-cities, Medicaid patients, homeless, former incarcerated, limited English proficient individuals, HIV+, LGBQIA, immigrants, refugees, sex workers, and people who inject drugs to link an estimated 14,000 diagnosed but untreated HCV and HBV infected individuals back into a physician's care. We are fortunate to have a knowledgeable independent advisory committee with representation from the medical community, major universities, and patient advocacy, to review and select the grantees. We are grateful for all 35 applicants who took the time to submit a grant and will work with the organizations who were not funded to update their proposals for the next round of funding.”

CDA Foundation will distribute three more rounds of Relink grants. The submission window for the second round of proposals opened in February 2024 for programs with a duration of no more than 18 months. Submission for the third round will open in August 2024 for programs with a duration of no more than 12 months, and February 2025 for programs with a duration of no more than six months. For more information, please visit https://cdafound.org/relink or contact CDA Foundation at [email protected].

About Center for Disease Analysis Foundation

CDA Foundation is a non-profit organization that seeks to help eliminate HBV and HCV globally by 2030 by providing countries across the world with verified epidemiological data, disease burden and economic impact modeling, smart intervention strategies, access to affordable diagnostics and treatments, innovative financing, and knowledge-sharing partnerships to eliminate these deadly infections. It works with more than 110 countries globally and 26 US states on their viral hepatitis elimination programs. CDA is headquartered in Lafayette, Colorado.

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