SF Examiner: "Get Married, Get Hep B Vaccine"

By: Mike Aldax

09/10/09 9:30 AM PDT

Young and happy couples fetching marriage licenses at City Hall are also poised to receive this piece of not-so-fun advice: Don’t forget to receive your Hepatitis B vaccinations!

On Wednesday Mayor Gavin Newsom directed The City and County Clerk to offer additional preventative information about the dangerous disease to couples applying for marriage licenses, including where they can be tested or receive vaccinations.

The Newsom directive says Hepatitis B largely affects The City’s Asian and Pacific Islander population and can cause acute illness and chronic infection including cirrhosis, liver failure and liver cancer. It is easily transmitted from mother-to-child at birth, through unprotected sex or by contaminated blood on toothbrushes, razors or needles, the mayor said.

“An estimated 1 in 10 people of (Asian or Pacific Islander) descent in the Bay Area has an undiagnosed HBV infection compared to 1 in 1000 in the general population,” the mayor said in his executive directive.