By Shipra Shukla
Free screening in San Francisco
The HepB Free Project is hosting a screening on Saturday, Mar. 1 at 2330 Post Street in San Francisco, from 9 am to noon. Interpreters will be available to provide translation in Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese.
The HepB Free Project is housed in the San Francisco Department of Public Health. The program is a citywide effort to eradicate hepatitis B from the City of San Francisco by providing free screening efforts and affordable vaccination. Janet Zola, coordinator, HepB Free Project, approached UCSF’s top leadership to join hands in the HepB eradication effort.
On Feb. 4, the HepB Project partnered with the UCSF National Center of Excellence for Women’s Health and the Asian Heart & Vascular Center to put on a special joint HepB, blood pressure and blood sugar screenings to celebrate the National Heart Awareness Month.
Many patients don’t know they have been infected with Hepatitis B until they are referred to their physicians for other diseases, such as liver cirrhosis or liver cancer.
According to the HepB Free project Asians are at higher risk. “Nearly one in three Asians have been infected by the Hepatitis B virus, and protection from it is necessary to prevent unnecessary death,” said Zola.
Working together at the HepB Project: UCSF (in white) and UCB (in blue) students with faculty Josh Adler, MD, Director of Pathways to Discovery and UCSF HepB Project lead; Francis Yao, MD, Associate Medical Director, Liver Transplantation; and Marion Peters, MD, Chief of Hepatology Research; and staff
