Lifting a Death Sentence

Jacob of West Africa had hepatitis and knew his liver disease would kill him. The treatment he needed was available, but not to him. His government funded it for people with HIV/AIDS, considered a higher priority than hepatitis. In desperation, Jacob tried to become a priority—by contracting AIDS. But hepatitis killed him first.

The irony is too perverse to ignore. Yet health ministers worldwide opt to fight HIV/AIDS, though hepatitis kills more people than HIV/AIDS. The World Health Organization and World Hepatitis Alliance knew that if hepatitis sufferers considered contracting HIV/AIDS a lifesaving act, then the world needed to see hepatitis for the killer it is. So we created a global awareness campaign to get people to “Think Again” about hepatitis—and urge governments to give hepatitis due priority.

We galvanized people around hashtag #thinkhepatitis, debunked myths to overcome stigmas, launched World Hepatitis Day at the Commonwealth Games with the world’s largest Tweet Wall, and amplified engagement by using tweet-multiplying Thunderclap.

We conducted screenings and a real-time Q&A tweet marathon. And we made our message memorable by making it singable. Our YouTube music video went viral. Local groups held hepatitis BBQ's, celebrity car washes, night-sky lantern launches; and bathed a bridge connecting two continents in yellow light.

157 countries and 87 governments joined us, calling for action, among them Barack Obama and David Cameron. We reached 234 million via traditional media, 148 million via Twitter, and sent SMS messages to 6.5 million across Africa. Now world leaders are engaging health ministries in the war on hepatitis—helping people like Jacob.

We pulled in the resources of health organizations around the world, and developed all the creative tools that this army of advocates could use to put this disease on the global health agenda. And we organized a global call-to-action via social media channels to galvanize the world to “think again” through creative means like a giant outdoor Tweet Wall, which went live on World Hepatitis Day at the 53-nation Commonwealth Games, and Thunderclap, which powered a global tidal wave of social media. We offered on-the-spot testing. WHO ran a real-time tweet Q&A on hepatitis. Our hashtags (including #WorldHepatitisDay) trended on Twitter.

We made our message memorable by making it singable. Our YouTube music video went viral, and our billboards were seen globally. Our website became a hub for 280 local groups, which generated grass-roots support and staged such high-profile activities as vaccination drives, hepatitis BBQs, celebrity car washes, and night-sky lantern launches. We reached millions in Africa’s hepatitis hotspots via SMS. And our groups assisted policymakers with new national agendas.

#thinkhepatitis became the most successful global hepatitis campaign in WHO/World Hepatitis Alliance history, fostering government action and promoting social education and conversation, while putting hepatitis front and center on the world’s healthcare agenda.

• 7 global political leaders spoke out on the issue, including the U.S.’s Barack Obama and Britain’s David Cameron, and issued official hepatitis proclamations

• 157 countries joined the crusade to promote and celebrate World Hepatitis Day, a third more than ever before

• 325 organizations registered World Hepatitis Day events (217% above expected response)

• Reached 6.5 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa with our text messaging campaign (650% over goal)

• Our call to action reached 148 million directly on Twitter, and 14.5 million responded via Thunderclap

• Website traffic increased 2,913%, setting an all-time record and appealing in multiple languages to visitors across the globe

• 3,875 media articles ran around the globe (388% above goal), reaching 234 million people