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Feb
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The arrival of vaccination for Covid-19 is a very welcome development, particularly after the heavy toll on patients and liver services in 2020. However, the efficacy, or potential for adverse events, of these vaccines in patients with chronic liver disease (CLD) or post-liver transplantation (LT) remains unknown. Sub-optimal immune responses to vaccines are common in CLD and post-LT, and thus additional protective strategies may be necessary.
COBALT is a pan-European, large-scale, prospective observational cohort study designed to determine the real-world effectiveness and safety of vaccines for Covid-19 in CLD and post-LT. We invite centres to participate in this effort, co-ordinated by EF-CLIF: www.efclif.com .
Jan
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Gilead’s Research Scholars Program supports innovative research from emerging investigators around the world to advance scientific knowledge in areas of unmet medical needs. Each award is funded up to $130,000 for two years, to be paid in annual installments of up to $65,000 per year.
The Research Scholars Program for liver disease is currently accepting applications from early-career scientists to support basic, clinical and translational research in the field of liver disease, including but not limited to:
• Chronic viral hepatitis
• End-stage liver disease and its complications
• Non-viral chronic liver diseases
• Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)
• Cholangiocarcinoma (CCC)
The program will be accepting applications until 26th February 2021.
More information on the program, including eligibility criteria and how to submit an application, can be found by visiting the following website: https://researchscholars.gilead.com/en/intl_liver_disease_portal/program-overview
(21.01.21)
Jan
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All acute hospital Trusts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will be contacted on the 18th January 2021 asking them to respond to a Survey asking about a range of aspects of care for patients with alcohol-related liver disease (ARLD).
This Survey is 10 years after the NCEPOD review of patients who died with ARLD, which made up the 2013 NCEPOD report ‘Measuring the Units’. This is an important piece of work looking at where we are with care provision for this patient group, what has improved and where there is work still to be done. For this to have the most impact, it is crucial that there is strong clinician engagement with their Trusts and we very much appreciate your support with this.
Please contact NCEPOD at arld@ncepod.org.uk to be put in contact with the person at your Trust/Health board to whom the Survey has been sent.
(13.01.2021)
Jan
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A joint statement from British Society of Gastroenterology, British Association for the Study of the Liver, NHS Blood & Transplant and British Liver Trust.
Patients with liver disease that are considered to be clinically extremely vulnerable, and are at increased risk if they contract COVID-19. This advice refers to this group and to all other patients with liver disease.
- Whilst the vaccine trials have not looked specifically at safety in patients with liver disease, there is no data to suggest harm.
- Although vaccines may be less effective in patients with chronic liver disease and those post-liver transplant, they still provide protection. As yet there is no data specifically on the Sars-CoV2 vaccines
- We recommend that patients with chronic liver disease, autoimmune hepatitis and those post-liver transplant should consider vaccination for Sars-CoV2 with any of the available vaccines.
First published on 08 Jan 2021
Dec
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The 2021 ACCEA round opened on Monday 7th December 2020 and will close at 17:00 on Thursday 18th March 2021.
DEADLINE for applying for BASL support is 09:00 on MONDAY 1st FEBRUARY 2021.
BASL will need to have completed the process of selecting those applicants who will receive our support well before the ACCEA deadline date.
If you wish to be considered for a new national award in the 2021 round and you would like to seek BASL support, you should submit a copy of your Application Form to the BASL Secretariat.
Applications should be sent to Judy Hawksworth at judy@basl.org.uk by 09:00 on Monday 1st February 2021.
When submitting your application to BASL, please provide the name of an individual who has agreed to write your supporting citation. Please note, we will need to request a citation for every applicant even if the member is not successful in gaining BASL support, in order to meet the tight deadlines imposed by ACCEA.
Please also include a paragraph on your involvement/work with BASL as this will become relevant later in the BASL process.
Follow this link for further information on the Gov UK ACCEA website.
Further information on how BASL decides whom to support can be found in the document below:
Download How BASL Decides_ACCEA 2021.pdf
ACCEA regard the citations provided by BASL as important: they give added value to the process. The citation helps clarify information in the application and can put an individual's contribution into the wider context.
We look forward to receiving your applications.
Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact judy@basl.org.uk .
18 December 2020
Nov
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The 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded jointly to Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus. Labelled a Cinderella story of medicine, investigations for causes and prevention of ‘post-transfusion hepatitis’ started with Harvey Alter an aspiring haematologist who collaborated with Baruch Blumberg leading to the discovery of hepatitis B; Harvey Alter was the second author in the original article (view > here) and the first author of the next describing the characteristics of the ‘Australia antigen’ (view > here).
Harvey Alter later observed that only 20% of transfusion hepatitis was explained by the hepatitis B virus and carried on to demonstrate the transmissibility of the ‘non-A, non-B hepatitis virus ’ in chimpanzees. Michael Haughton led the direct molecular cloning of HCV (view > here). While Blumberg won the Nobel Prize way back in 1976, Alter together with Houghton in 2000 and Charles Rice in 2016 (for his seminal work on HCV replicon system) received the Lasker Award (hailed as a pre-Nobel award).
Following the Lasker Award, Alter said that ‘I am perhaps the thread that links these events, but the story is a fabric woven by many collaborators who played essential parts and by the conducive environment of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) intramural program that has nurtured these clinical investigations...My gratitude is without bounds’. He also wrote about the discovery of Australia antigen, a serendipity (view > here).
Houghton’s response to the Nobel award was that ‘We thought it would be solved quickly, but it actually took seven years to find’.
Rice reminisced that ‘Manufacturers are now attempting to lower the price, in part by granting production rights in poorer countries. I would have been much happier had it been more rapid.’ Rice also told the interviewer that the WHO was unlikely to be able to eradicate the virus by 2030, in part because a broadly effective and widely available vaccine was still years away.
An essay on the history of Hepatitis C by Harvey Alter, was recently published online in the AASLD Journal Clinical Liver Disease; Download History Of HCV - BLOG 2020.pdf
Guruprasad Aithal
President, BASL
Oct
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Frontline Gastroenterology are looking to appoint new Trainee Associate Editors.
Closing date 16/11/2020.
For more information click > here .
Oct
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The Royal College of Physicians’ Accreditation Unit is seeking to appoint a quality lead to take responsibility for the level one submissions of services working towards full accreditation and supporting services to level 2. The post holder will represent IQILS and support the development of the programme and increase awareness and engagement among Liver services.
This is an exciting and varied role suitable for a consultant hepatologist. The time commitment is 0.5 PA per week. The role description can be found on the IQILS website: https://www.iqils.org/CMS/AllNews.aspx
If you are interested in this role, please send your CV and a supporting statement of no more than 2 pages outlining how you meet the person specification to askiqils@rcplondon.ac.uk by the closing date.
Please contact the IQILS manager, Madeline Bano at askiqils@rcplondon.ac.uk if you have any questions or would like an informal discussion about the role.
Applications will close at midnight on Sunday 8 November 2020. Interviews will be held in the morning of Thursday 19 November.
The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) believes that equality of opportunity is fundamental in whatever way individuals become involved with the RCP, whether as physicians, physicians-in-training or staff. It welcomes and actively seeks to recruit people to its activities regardless of race, religion, ethnic origin, disability, age, gender and sexual orientation. The RCP aims to reflect the diversity of its members in all its committee, senior roles and staff.
Oct
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An international study led by researchers at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has shown that patients with cirrhosis are at increased risk of dying as a result of COVID-19.
The study, published in the Journal of Hepatology, found that mortality from COVID-19 was particularly high among patients with more advanced cirrhosis (called Childs-Pugh B or C cirrhosis) and those with alcohol-related liver disease.
The study was a collaboration between scientists at the Oxford Liver Unit, based at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital, and colleagues at the University of North Carolina (USA), and was supported by the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL)
The paper presented data on over 1,300 patients from 29 different countries and compared COVID-19 outcomes between patients with and without liver disease.
“Our study confirms that severity of liver disease is closely associated with poor outcomes from COVID-19, with cirrhosis patients being at significantly increased risk of death,” said Dr Thomas Marjot, who leads the study alongside Professor Eleanor Barnes of the University of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Medicine.
“Given the huge global burden of cirrhosis, with an estimated 112 million people affected, and the resurgence of the virus in many areas of the world these findings have far-reaching implications for how we manage patients with liver disease during the pandemic. This includes the need to consider enhanced protection and social distancing for patients with advanced cirrhosis,” Dr Marjot explained.
The study found that mortality among patients with cirrhosis was 32%, compared with 8% in those without. However, the risk of mortality increased in those with more advanced forms of cirrhosis, rising as high as 51% in those in the most severe category. Other risk factors for death included advancing age and alcohol-related liver disease.
The majority of deaths in cirrhosis patients (71%) were from respiratory failure caused by COVID-19. The virus also seemed to cause a deterioration in liver function, with patients developing complications such as ascites or encephalopathy even in the absence of typical respiratory symptoms of COVID-19.
This work follows a recent publication from the same group in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology which showed that liver transplant recipients did not appear to be at increased risk of death from the virus.
Dr Andrew Moon at The University of North Carolina said: “This study nicely compliments our findings in patients with prior liver transplantation. In contrast to the presence of advanced cirrhosis, having a liver transplantation was not associated with increased risk of death from COVID-19. This suggests that we should aim to continue liver transplant services during the pandemic wherever possible.”
Professor Thomas Berg, EASL Vice-Secretary General and Head of the Division of Hepatology at Leipzig University Medical Centre in Germany, said: “The findings from this large registry study are very relevant to clinicians and patients worldwide, as we continue to optimise liver disease management during the pandemic.
“These results are timely and reinforce the recommendations made in the joint Position Papers by EASL and the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) published in JHEP Reports, which offer guidance on how to approach patients with different types and stages of liver disease.”
ENDS
Contact:
Roy Probert, Senior Communications Manager
Mobile: 07341 115585
roy.probert@ouh.nhs.uk
Sep
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Many people have been consuming more alcohol during lockdown, especially those with hazardous or harmful drinking behaviour. Anecdotal observations suggest an increase in the number and severity of admissions of patients with alcohol-related liver disease (ArLD) since lockdown was implemented with more patients presenting with advanced disease including variceal haemorrhage and alcoholic hepatitis. The ArLD Special Interest Group aims to perform a systematic national service evaluation of ArLD hospital episodes to determine whether the number of ArLD patients and the severity of their disease is different post-lockdown compared to a similar period in 2019. Working in collaboration with Public Health colleagues, this information will be combined with a national dataset to help us understand the effect of lockdown on our vulnerable patient group and to plan alcohol services at a local and national level.
We need your help to contribute data from your Trust. We are using a validated Excel-based tool to identify eligible patients and a simple Excel data collection tool. An evaluation lead and any other assistant (e.g. specialty trainee) at each participating centre will be recognised as co-authors in any publications that arise from this evaluation.
To register your interest in participating in this national service evaluation and to receive further details, please email me at ashwin.dhanda@nhs.net .
Thank you for your support,
Ashwin
Dr Ashwin Dhanda, BASL ArLD SIG lead
