New Mexico’s Hepatitis C Alliance, and its 2004 Strategic Plan for New Mexico, are the natural outcome of
a long held and deepening concern about the hepatitis C epidemic, and its social and economic impacts on our state.
In response to this concern, in the fall of 1999 the New Mexico Department of Health’s Public Health Division, in partnership with
the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center and University of New Mexico School of Medicine (and hosted by Lovelace Medical
Education), convened the first statewide Hepatitis C Consensus Conference. The supporters of this initial conference included the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT), Hepatitis Foundation International,
U.S. Indian Health Service, New Mexico Medical Society, New Mexico Medical Review Association, Presbyterian Healthcare Foundation,
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, S.E.D. Medical Laboratories, and TriCore Reference Libraries.
This initial two-day conference, held in Albuquerque on September 30 and October 1, focused on two primary long-range objectives:
* Developing community standards of care for the evaluation, prevention, and treatment of the hepatitis C virus
(HCV) infection,
* Exploring systems of services and mechanisms for funding these efforts. Over 100 public and private
health professionals were invited to attend the conference, and a wide range of topics and materials
on hepatitis C were presented.
The first Consensus Conference organized and
energized the consensus building process that would later give rise to the Hepatitis C Alliance in 2003.
An
equally successful second Hepatitis C Consensus Conference followed the success of our first conference. Our second conference, held
on April 6, 2001, had similar partnerships and supporters. This second conference provided needed updates on hepatitis C, but focused
on hosting working groups, each charged with developing recommendations for building and implementing much-needed systems of services,
screening and treatment guidelines, standards of care, strategies for community education and networking, and for developing and using
information technologies appropriate for our multicultural, rural state.
These recommendations gave us the
foundation we needed to take the next step: from consensus to action.
Thus, the inaugural meeting of
the New Mexico Hepatitis C Alliance, composed of Consensus Conference members and other stakeholders, was held on November 13 and
14 of 2003 at the Wyndham Garden Hotel in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The New Mexico Department of Health, Public Health Division
and the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and Health Sciences Center sponsored the event. Schering-Plough, Roche Laboratories,
and Pfizer co-sponsored the meeting.
The meeting utilized the recommendations from the previous consensus
building conferences, and focused on developing the strategic plan necessary to address hepatitis C for the state of New Mexico.
Invitees Congressman Tom Udall and Congresswoman Heather Wilson agreed to be the honorary co-chairs of our Alliance.
By early 2004 the New Mexico Hepatitis C Alliance had drafted its vision, mission, guiding principles, core and supporting processes,
and accompanying strategies into a strategic plan, “A Vision and Strategy: Hepatitis C in New Mexico.”
From
building consensus to strategizing a plan of action, the New Mexico Hepatitis C Alliance is now poised to begin the next phase of
addressing the hepatitis C epidemic: the implementation of our strategic plan!
There was our first annual
meeting held in September 2006. There was a cross reference of attendees present that got down to work at the Indian Pueblo
Cultural Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. There was a strategizing session to develop an updated strategic plan for the Alliance.
Election of board members was held and a membership drive brought in new members.
The New Mexico Hepatitis
C Alliance was approved in December 2006 as a non-profit (501(c)3) corporation by both the Internal Revenue Service and the State
of New Mexico.
In early 2007, the NMHCA newsletter started to be published, the Yahoo group list serve has
been kept up to date, Hepatitis C Awareness Days have been planned, Health Fairs saw our presence, and we completed much advocacy
work during the New Mexico Legislative Session. Gavriela deBoer designed and put together the first NMHCA quilt. This
quilt has panels that were decorated by individuals that are affected by hepatitis C in New Mexico. We did a special outreach
to those that are incarcerated at one of the prisons in New Mexico. There are images of the quilt in our Photos section of this
website.
Mid summer 2007, the NMHCA updated its vision and mission language along with reviewing and updating
the strategic plan.
Late 2007 and early 2008 found us advocating both in New Mexico and in Washington, DC.
We were seeking funding for programs and the passage of the Hepatitis Epidemic Control and Prevention Act.
In the Spring, we were gearing up for and holding events for both World Hepatitis Day and for New Mexico Hepatitis C Awareness Days.
This was the first year that we truely collaborated with many other groups, both on a state level as well as a national level.
We were once again during the summer were doing "house keeping" work on our bylaws and getting them ready for the Annual Meeting.
During 2008, we reached out to more health fairs, attended conferences and workshops, revamped the website and continued our newsletters.
We started to make the connections and collaborations with other agencies and organizations. With these collaborations, we were
able to reach more of the population in New Mexico. Discussions started on forming a task force to deal with the viral
hepatitis issues in New Mexico. This task force would be part of the New Mexico HIV Community Planning and Action Group (CPAG).
At
our annual meeting, we held elections for new board members. The board elected the officers which can be found on our Board
of Directors page.
2009 started out with a bang. In collaboration with Project ECHO, the New Mexico
Department of Health (NMDOH), University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, and the Rotary Club of Albuquerque; a new phamphlet
was created call the "-60 Second- Hepatitis C Risk Test". The members of Rotary throughout New Mexico were given these brochures
so that they may help to raise awareness of hepatitis C in New Mexico.
In the spring of 2009, the Viral Hepatitis
Task Force was officially formed within CPAG. This task force can utilized the same tools and programs to help with the
viral hepatitis issues that parallel the HIV issues.
We increase our outreach with setting up health fairs
or booths at more events. We were present at the KOB TV4 Health Fair, National Black AIDS Awareness Day, New Mexico AIDS Service's
"National Women and Girls' HIV Awreness Day", the 9th Circle of Harmony Conference, the City of Albuquerque Employee Health Fair,
Spring Pan, the Gathering of Nations Pow Wow, San Felipe Pueblo Health Fair, numerous World Hepatitis Day events, and three GLBT Pridefests
across New Mexico. We collaborated with many other agencies and organizations to enhance our presence at these events.
We wish to thank Project ECHO, CPAG, NMDOH, NMAS, NM Harm Reduction, Santa Fe Mountain Center, Southwest Care, First Nations, AmeriCorps,
and Navajo AIDS Network for collaborating with us.
More to come!
