SF Hep B Free
Putting the Social in Theory
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
SF Hep B Free is currently going through a war of position. In this war of movement, SF Hep B Free also needs to “take the offensive more openly against the oppositionists and organise permanently the ‘impossibility’ of internal disintegration – with controls of every kind, political, administrative, etc., reinforcement of the hegominic ‘positions’ of the dominant group” (238-9). They are attempting to affect change indirectly by ensuring that various aspects of civil society can empathize and began to see what change needs to be affected. We are seeing part of Gramsci’s theory of transition occurring.
In this scenario, SF Hep B Free is attempting to change society. Here, we can view the State as a “coercive apparatus to bring the mass of the people into conformity with the specific type of production and the specific economy at a given moment” (56). Right now, Hepatitis B is not seen as national priority.
More specifically, primary providers are attempting to care for all of their patients as a whole and have less time to consider health disparities such as Hepatitis B, which might only affect a minor fraction of their patients or even none of their patients. These providers generate consent and thus, hegemony of what society is unaware of. They help generate hegemony through the whole idea that they are the people, who take care of us and have no ill-intended thoughts in their mind. They only have the intention of ensuring our well being. However, the problem in terms of Hep B awareness is that they might not know how to ensure a person’s well-being if that person might have Hepatitis B. These providers’ lack of knowledge of how to deal with a health disparity ends up leaving society to deal with the real truth of what is at stake, the rotation “of the ruling-class parties, not the foundation and organization of a new political society, and even less of a new type of civil society” (160). What is really at stake is this system, where people, who have Hepatitis B and dying from it despite the lack of resources available. The vaccine has been around since the 1960s and yet over 270 million people in the world have this disease. This cycle needs to be broken for change to be able to affect society. The best way for change to affect society is through a war of position. This war of position, “once won, is decisive definitively” (239) and as a result, change will occur. However, “the war of position demands enormous sacrifices by infinite masses of people” (239). SF Hep B Free needs to stay strong and continue to mobilize groups of support from their cause, not to just focus on Asian interest groups, but the community as a whole from churches to trade unions, and businesses.
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Showing posts with label Coverage: Blogs. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Friday, September 17, 2010
San Francisco's "Hep B Free" Campaign a Model For The Rest of the Country
Reappropriate.com article
I’ve heard a lot lately about San Francisco’s Hep B Free campaign, a public campaign to increase hepatitis B awareness and vaccination in the Bay Area. According to Hep B Free’s website, Hepatitis B — which results from infection by the HBV virus – causes liver cancer in 80% of diagnosed patients. Further, the bloodborne HBV virus can survive for more than 7 days outside of the body and is 100 times more infectious than HIV. Sadly, HBV infections are frequently missed by primary care physicians even though diagnosis only requires a simple blood test.
Currently, 1.25 million Americans are infected with HBV, of which roughly half are Asian American. In fact, HBV is one of the leading causes of death for the Asian American community; 1 in 10 Asian Americans are currently infected with Hepatitis B.
In a talk to the 2nd annual Asian American Health Conference, Dr. Francisco Sy of the NIH noted some of the cultural and linguistic barriers that appear to influence the high HBV infection rates amongst Asian Americans:
--
Decrying that too many health academics do too much “helicopter” research in minority communities — i.e., go in and out to study the population in the short term without really getting to know them — Dr. Sy argued that “community is so important and we need to be treated as partners [in health studies] and not guinea pigs.”
Dr. Sy also contended that the stereotype which characterizes Asian Americans as the “model minority” has contributed to the dearth on health data for the group, a detriment for the community because data is what gets institutions like the NIH to give money to do further studies or finance programs.
“If there is no data,” said Dr. Sy, “there is no funding and communities suffer because Asian Americans are considered Ômodel minorities’ then people think they don’t have any [health] problems.”
The reality indeed is far from such assumptions. According to Dr. Sy, 21% of Asian Americans are uninsured and 12.5% live below the poverty line. Many also have language barriers which, along with the lack of financial resources, keep them form navigating America’s convoluted healthcare system.
Dr. Sy also mentioned that the group’s social and cultural practices — like putting the family over the self, holding a fatalistic view of illness or subscribing to more “traditional” types of healing (for Filipinos this include prayer and religious healing) and keeping topics like domestic violence and sexual orientation taboo have acted as barriers for a healthier Asian American community.
--
On the West Coast, several campaigns have worked tirelessly within the community to try and break down some of these barriers. Ted Fang, of Asian Week, who is one of the vocal leaders of San Francisco Hep B Free discussed (in the video above) how the high insurance rates of Asian Americans — some 90% of Asian Americans have health insurance — means that it’s not just about improving access to healthcare. Instead, specifically tailored awareness campaigns aimed at both patients and primary care physicians, are needed to break down the cultural stigmas around Hepatitis B.
Not surprisingly, the strategy of actually collecting community-specific data about a disease that disproportionately affects said community actually works. Fang reports in the article that nearly two-thirds of San Francisco doctors have pledged to test at-risk patients for Hepatitis B, and the Hep B Free campaign in the Bay Area is now being considered for adoption in other cities around the country.
It’s great to see recognition for those community leaders who are in the trenches, working on a non-glamorous, but nonetheless important, problem like Hepatitis B. Furthermore, their efforts speak to the critical necessity for more large race-specific, epidemiological studies, so that we can start more dialogues on stigmatized health issues and begin to identify new ways to help save lives within the APIA community.
I’ve heard a lot lately about San Francisco’s Hep B Free campaign, a public campaign to increase hepatitis B awareness and vaccination in the Bay Area. According to Hep B Free’s website, Hepatitis B — which results from infection by the HBV virus – causes liver cancer in 80% of diagnosed patients. Further, the bloodborne HBV virus can survive for more than 7 days outside of the body and is 100 times more infectious than HIV. Sadly, HBV infections are frequently missed by primary care physicians even though diagnosis only requires a simple blood test.
Currently, 1.25 million Americans are infected with HBV, of which roughly half are Asian American. In fact, HBV is one of the leading causes of death for the Asian American community; 1 in 10 Asian Americans are currently infected with Hepatitis B.
In a talk to the 2nd annual Asian American Health Conference, Dr. Francisco Sy of the NIH noted some of the cultural and linguistic barriers that appear to influence the high HBV infection rates amongst Asian Americans:
--
Decrying that too many health academics do too much “helicopter” research in minority communities — i.e., go in and out to study the population in the short term without really getting to know them — Dr. Sy argued that “community is so important and we need to be treated as partners [in health studies] and not guinea pigs.”
Dr. Sy also contended that the stereotype which characterizes Asian Americans as the “model minority” has contributed to the dearth on health data for the group, a detriment for the community because data is what gets institutions like the NIH to give money to do further studies or finance programs.
“If there is no data,” said Dr. Sy, “there is no funding and communities suffer because Asian Americans are considered Ômodel minorities’ then people think they don’t have any [health] problems.”
The reality indeed is far from such assumptions. According to Dr. Sy, 21% of Asian Americans are uninsured and 12.5% live below the poverty line. Many also have language barriers which, along with the lack of financial resources, keep them form navigating America’s convoluted healthcare system.
Dr. Sy also mentioned that the group’s social and cultural practices — like putting the family over the self, holding a fatalistic view of illness or subscribing to more “traditional” types of healing (for Filipinos this include prayer and religious healing) and keeping topics like domestic violence and sexual orientation taboo have acted as barriers for a healthier Asian American community.
--
On the West Coast, several campaigns have worked tirelessly within the community to try and break down some of these barriers. Ted Fang, of Asian Week, who is one of the vocal leaders of San Francisco Hep B Free discussed (in the video above) how the high insurance rates of Asian Americans — some 90% of Asian Americans have health insurance — means that it’s not just about improving access to healthcare. Instead, specifically tailored awareness campaigns aimed at both patients and primary care physicians, are needed to break down the cultural stigmas around Hepatitis B.
Not surprisingly, the strategy of actually collecting community-specific data about a disease that disproportionately affects said community actually works. Fang reports in the article that nearly two-thirds of San Francisco doctors have pledged to test at-risk patients for Hepatitis B, and the Hep B Free campaign in the Bay Area is now being considered for adoption in other cities around the country.
It’s great to see recognition for those community leaders who are in the trenches, working on a non-glamorous, but nonetheless important, problem like Hepatitis B. Furthermore, their efforts speak to the critical necessity for more large race-specific, epidemiological studies, so that we can start more dialogues on stigmatized health issues and begin to identify new ways to help save lives within the APIA community.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Hepatitis B: An Asian-American Plague?
by Chris Santiago | Change.org
"In the Asian-American family, usually parents don't want to discuss if they have diseases," Albert Ng recently told NPR while attending San Francisco's Asian Heritage Street Fair. "They just want to discuss the good stuff, but never discuss the weaknesses."
Ng was at a booth getting tested for hepatitis B for the first time in his life. One in 10 Asian-Americans is chronically infected with the disease; when left untreated, hepatitis B can lead to liver cancer. San Francisco has the highest liver cancer rate in the country, and this is mostly due to the city's famously large population of Asian-Americans, for whom hep B has become an epidemic. Of the 1.25 million Americans who are affected by hep B, half are Asian-Americans.
Why is hepatitis B so common among Asians? The disease is thought to have originated in Asia centuries ago. It's passed down from infected mothers to newborn infants. While blood tests can detect the hep B virus, most physicians in the U.S. only test those who engage in high-risk behaviors, such as unprotected sex or intravenous drug use. Many doctors simply aren't aware that Asian immigrants, especially those from China, are much more likely to have been infected at birth.
To make matters worse, many Asian-Americans who could have been infected at birth may be completely in the dark about the matter. As Ng pointed out to NPR, traditional Asian values may be partly to blame: It's not unlikely that Asian immigrants who knew they were infected with hep B regarded that fact as something shameful, as something that was better not to be discussed.
Some Asian-Americans that I know well also take a fatalistic attitude toward histories of hep B and liver cancer in their families. "If it's going to happen, it's going to happen," is how the conversation often turns. "Better to live your life without worrying about it."
The thing is, hep B can be suppressed with medication, if it's caught early.
"This is a disease [for] which, unlike HIV, we have all the solutions," Samuel So, director of the Asian Liver Center at Stanford University, told NPR. "We know how to prevent it. We have a very effective vaccine; we have treatments which can help to suppress the virus, and yet we are not doing a good job."
Which brings us back to Albert Ng: In addition to a hard-hitting public awareness campaign, city health officials in San Francisco have begun offering free testing, vaccination and treatment to all residents. Ng was getting tested because it turns out that his own grandfather died of liver cancer caused by hepatitis B.
Nationwide, liver cancer and hep B are becoming an Asian-American epidemic. To combat this epidemic, the community needs to talk, and it also needs to shake a few trees. Take the city of New York, for example: 12% of the population of New York is Asian-American. But as recently as 2008, less than one percent of social services were channeled toward the Asian-American community. According to the Coaltion for Asian American Children & Families, Asian-Americans were 10 times as likely to develop liver cancer as the rest of the population of New York.
San Francisco's program is promising, and other cities plan to replicate its efforts. But to combat liver cancer and hep B, we're going to need to raise money — and our voices.
Photo Credit: San Francisco Hep B Free
Chris Santiago is a freelance writer and editor who until recently was an editor at McGraw-Hill.
"In the Asian-American family, usually parents don't want to discuss if they have diseases," Albert Ng recently told NPR while attending San Francisco's Asian Heritage Street Fair. "They just want to discuss the good stuff, but never discuss the weaknesses."Ng was at a booth getting tested for hepatitis B for the first time in his life. One in 10 Asian-Americans is chronically infected with the disease; when left untreated, hepatitis B can lead to liver cancer. San Francisco has the highest liver cancer rate in the country, and this is mostly due to the city's famously large population of Asian-Americans, for whom hep B has become an epidemic. Of the 1.25 million Americans who are affected by hep B, half are Asian-Americans.
Why is hepatitis B so common among Asians? The disease is thought to have originated in Asia centuries ago. It's passed down from infected mothers to newborn infants. While blood tests can detect the hep B virus, most physicians in the U.S. only test those who engage in high-risk behaviors, such as unprotected sex or intravenous drug use. Many doctors simply aren't aware that Asian immigrants, especially those from China, are much more likely to have been infected at birth.
To make matters worse, many Asian-Americans who could have been infected at birth may be completely in the dark about the matter. As Ng pointed out to NPR, traditional Asian values may be partly to blame: It's not unlikely that Asian immigrants who knew they were infected with hep B regarded that fact as something shameful, as something that was better not to be discussed.
Some Asian-Americans that I know well also take a fatalistic attitude toward histories of hep B and liver cancer in their families. "If it's going to happen, it's going to happen," is how the conversation often turns. "Better to live your life without worrying about it."
The thing is, hep B can be suppressed with medication, if it's caught early.
"This is a disease [for] which, unlike HIV, we have all the solutions," Samuel So, director of the Asian Liver Center at Stanford University, told NPR. "We know how to prevent it. We have a very effective vaccine; we have treatments which can help to suppress the virus, and yet we are not doing a good job."
Which brings us back to Albert Ng: In addition to a hard-hitting public awareness campaign, city health officials in San Francisco have begun offering free testing, vaccination and treatment to all residents. Ng was getting tested because it turns out that his own grandfather died of liver cancer caused by hepatitis B.
Nationwide, liver cancer and hep B are becoming an Asian-American epidemic. To combat this epidemic, the community needs to talk, and it also needs to shake a few trees. Take the city of New York, for example: 12% of the population of New York is Asian-American. But as recently as 2008, less than one percent of social services were channeled toward the Asian-American community. According to the Coaltion for Asian American Children & Families, Asian-Americans were 10 times as likely to develop liver cancer as the rest of the population of New York.
San Francisco's program is promising, and other cities plan to replicate its efforts. But to combat liver cancer and hep B, we're going to need to raise money — and our voices.
Photo Credit: San Francisco Hep B Free
Chris Santiago is a freelance writer and editor who until recently was an editor at McGraw-Hill.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Let’s Stop This Disease Before It’s Too Late
Published by Origins of American Culture - May 8, 2010
A provocative advertising campaign stirred up talk amongst the city of San Francisco. The image was of 10 beautiful Asian girls dressed in prom dresses with the bold statement “Which one deserves to die?” This advertisement put on by San Francisco Hep B Free states that 1 in 10 Asian Americans are infected with hepatitis B, the leading cause of liver cancer. Hepatitis B is spread through blood or bodily fluids. By getting a simple blood test, hepatitis B can be treated and even prevented. Fiona Ma, a Chinese-American state assemblywoman from San Francisco says, “No one wants to talk about it. But we know that people care about their families and their friends. And maybe if they know it can affect them, then maybe they’ll talk about it.” Ms. Ma contracted hepatitis B from her mother.
Hepatitis B is a modern day disease that has infected so many people throughout the United States. In the story ‘Plague of Ants’, Fray Bartolome de las Casas, the defender of the Indians, talks about another epidemic. In 1518, the Indians suffered from a great spread of smallpox. They were accustomed to washing themselves in the rivers every chance they got. Through this, the spread of the smallpox was going at a rapid rate and was locked inside their bodies. From lack of food, excessive labor, nakedness, and sleeping on the ground, the smallpox was the last thing the Indians’ bodies could handle and all died within a short period of time.
At this time in American history, there was no knowledge of medicine to help conquer the disease. Although the conditions of hepatitis B do not manifest until it’s really too late, the smallpox that the Indians endured burnt like fire in their bodies. Symptoms include raised pink raised pink rashes that turn into sores, severe headache, backache, excessive bleeding, and vomiting. The Spaniards were quick to notice that the Indians were dying off and in turn slowly stopped having them work out in the mines, but this was little to no help since this realization occurred so late.
With the education of doctors today and the knowledge of the diseases, smallpox and hepatitis B can be prevented. Although the vaccine for smallpox has not been given in the U.S. since 1972 when the disease was wiped out, the vaccine is given within 1-4 days of exposure which may prevent the illness altogether or make the symptoms less severe. Once the symptoms have started, the treatment is very limited. Hepatitis B is still infecting millions all across the world and a simple blood test will help bring knowledge to its carriers and can be prevented. Is one simple blood test stopping you from living?
References
A provocative advertising campaign stirred up talk amongst the city of San Francisco. The image was of 10 beautiful Asian girls dressed in prom dresses with the bold statement “Which one deserves to die?” This advertisement put on by San Francisco Hep B Free states that 1 in 10 Asian Americans are infected with hepatitis B, the leading cause of liver cancer. Hepatitis B is spread through blood or bodily fluids. By getting a simple blood test, hepatitis B can be treated and even prevented. Fiona Ma, a Chinese-American state assemblywoman from San Francisco says, “No one wants to talk about it. But we know that people care about their families and their friends. And maybe if they know it can affect them, then maybe they’ll talk about it.” Ms. Ma contracted hepatitis B from her mother.
Hepatitis B is a modern day disease that has infected so many people throughout the United States. In the story ‘Plague of Ants’, Fray Bartolome de las Casas, the defender of the Indians, talks about another epidemic. In 1518, the Indians suffered from a great spread of smallpox. They were accustomed to washing themselves in the rivers every chance they got. Through this, the spread of the smallpox was going at a rapid rate and was locked inside their bodies. From lack of food, excessive labor, nakedness, and sleeping on the ground, the smallpox was the last thing the Indians’ bodies could handle and all died within a short period of time.
At this time in American history, there was no knowledge of medicine to help conquer the disease. Although the conditions of hepatitis B do not manifest until it’s really too late, the smallpox that the Indians endured burnt like fire in their bodies. Symptoms include raised pink raised pink rashes that turn into sores, severe headache, backache, excessive bleeding, and vomiting. The Spaniards were quick to notice that the Indians were dying off and in turn slowly stopped having them work out in the mines, but this was little to no help since this realization occurred so late.
With the education of doctors today and the knowledge of the diseases, smallpox and hepatitis B can be prevented. Although the vaccine for smallpox has not been given in the U.S. since 1972 when the disease was wiped out, the vaccine is given within 1-4 days of exposure which may prevent the illness altogether or make the symptoms less severe. Once the symptoms have started, the treatment is very limited. Hepatitis B is still infecting millions all across the world and a simple blood test will help bring knowledge to its carriers and can be prevented. Is one simple blood test stopping you from living?
References
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
hep b free campaign: which one deserves to die?
Published by Angry Asian Man - May 4, 2010
For the 15th Anniversary of National Hepatitis Awareness Month in May, San Francisco Hep B Free has launched "Which One Deserves To Die?" a provocative ad campaign alerting the public that 1 in 10 Asian Americans is chronically infected with hepatitis B, compared to 1 in 1,000 in the general population. Hepatitis B infection causes up to 80 percent of liver cancers worldwide.
The ads, produced pro bono by DAE Advertising, are the first major market health campaign in the country to feature more than 60 people from the Bay Area's Asian American community. The campaign will appear in ethnic and local newspapers, billboards, bus shelters for the month of May. They've also produced TV commercials, which will receive exposure on cable, broadcast and Asian television stations.
Consider how many Asians live in San Francisco. Health officials estimate that as many as 1 in 10 residents of Asian descent are infected with the virus, a percentage that contributes to the nation's highest rate of liver cancer. That's crazy. And the craziest part is, hepatitis B can be treated and prevented.
Here's a New York Times article on the new campaign: In Ads, Plea for Asians to Get Tests for Hepatitis. To learn more about the fight against hepatitis B in San Francisco, go to the Hep B Free website here. To see the campaign's print ads and PSAs, go here.
For the 15th Anniversary of National Hepatitis Awareness Month in May, San Francisco Hep B Free has launched "Which One Deserves To Die?" a provocative ad campaign alerting the public that 1 in 10 Asian Americans is chronically infected with hepatitis B, compared to 1 in 1,000 in the general population. Hepatitis B infection causes up to 80 percent of liver cancers worldwide.
The ads, produced pro bono by DAE Advertising, are the first major market health campaign in the country to feature more than 60 people from the Bay Area's Asian American community. The campaign will appear in ethnic and local newspapers, billboards, bus shelters for the month of May. They've also produced TV commercials, which will receive exposure on cable, broadcast and Asian television stations.
Consider how many Asians live in San Francisco. Health officials estimate that as many as 1 in 10 residents of Asian descent are infected with the virus, a percentage that contributes to the nation's highest rate of liver cancer. That's crazy. And the craziest part is, hepatitis B can be treated and prevented.
Here's a New York Times article on the new campaign: In Ads, Plea for Asians to Get Tests for Hepatitis. To learn more about the fight against hepatitis B in San Francisco, go to the Hep B Free website here. To see the campaign's print ads and PSAs, go here.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Hep B Free campaign in San Francisco
Published by Upsteam - May 3, 2010
The NY Times ran an article Sunday profiling a provocative new campaign to try to persuade the Asian population in San Francisco to get tested for Hepatitis B, a major cause of the high liver cancer rates in the targeted group.
The “Which One Deserves to Die?” tag line is a strong fear appeal. Is it enough to overcome the stigma attached to the disease in the Asian-American community?
The NY Times ran an article Sunday profiling a provocative new campaign to try to persuade the Asian population in San Francisco to get tested for Hepatitis B, a major cause of the high liver cancer rates in the targeted group.
The “Which One Deserves to Die?” tag line is a strong fear appeal. Is it enough to overcome the stigma attached to the disease in the Asian-American community?
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Breaking the Silence on a Deadly Epidemic
Author: Julie Ha
Posted: December 10th, 2010
http://iamkoream.com/author/julie/
What if you were told there was a silent epidemic infecting one in 10 Asian Pacific Americans? That this disease is considered one of the top five leading causes of death for Asian Pacific Islander men living in California? That half of the 20,000 women in the United States who give birth each year and have this chronic infection are Asian Pacific Islander?
What would you do?
Some Asian American community leaders including Ted Fang, co-founder of the San Francisco Hep B Free campaign, joined by several lawmakers, says it’s time to make viral hepatitis, a disease that leads to inflammation of the liver, a national priority. They are responding in part to an announcement this fall by Dr. Thomas Frieden, chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who came out with a list of six “winnable battles,” which include smoking, AIDS, obesity/nutrition, teen pregnancy, auto injuries and health care infections. The list stirred quite a bit of controversy because some argued these conditions are, in effect, already national priorities, receiving a great deal of attention and government resources.
Meanwhile, viral hepatitis, remains largely unknown among the general public, as well as policymakers, despite the fact that it is the fourth leading infectious cause of death in the United States. An estimated 1.25 million Americans are chronically infected with hepatitis B (one of three of the most common types of viral hepatitis, along with hepatitis A and hepatitis C), with more than half of the infected being Asian Pacific Islander Americans, according to the Asian Liver Center at Stanford University. While one in 10 Asian Pacific Americans is infected in the U.S., that compares to one in 1,000 among Caucasians, so this is clearly an especially important health issue for our ethnic community.
On a global scale, there are about 350 million people with chronic hepatitis B infection, and an estimated 78 percent of them live in Asia or the Pacific Islands.
Often dubbed the “silent epidemic,” an estimated 70 percent of persons with it do not know they are infected and risk transmitting the disease. And, yet, there are vaccinations to prevent two of the most common forms, hepatitis A and hepatitis B.
For those infected with viral hepatitis, without treatment, 15 to 40 percent will develop liver cirrhosis. An estimated 5,000 people in the U.S. die each year from hepatitis B virus-related liver cancer or cirrhosis with liver failure.
Despite these alarming facts, there remains a dearth of government leadership, public knowledge of and resources for viral hepatitis. Fang, whose Hep B Free campaign strives to turn San Francisco into the first hepatitis B-free city in the nation with free and low-cost testing and vaccinations, says without public outcry, there is no political will to get this epidemic on the map.
In a recent letter to the CDC, 16 lawmakers, including Congress members Judy Chu (D-Calif.) and Mike Honda (D-Calif.), demanded a “clear plan” for how the CDC will combat the disease. They called its omission from the list of six CDC priorities “glaring.” Their bottom line message: this, too, is a winnable battle if given the proper attention and resources. It’s an epidemic that shouldn’t remain “silent.”
Posted: December 10th, 2010
http://iamkoream.com/author/julie/
What if you were told there was a silent epidemic infecting one in 10 Asian Pacific Americans? That this disease is considered one of the top five leading causes of death for Asian Pacific Islander men living in California? That half of the 20,000 women in the United States who give birth each year and have this chronic infection are Asian Pacific Islander?
What would you do?
Some Asian American community leaders including Ted Fang, co-founder of the San Francisco Hep B Free campaign, joined by several lawmakers, says it’s time to make viral hepatitis, a disease that leads to inflammation of the liver, a national priority. They are responding in part to an announcement this fall by Dr. Thomas Frieden, chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who came out with a list of six “winnable battles,” which include smoking, AIDS, obesity/nutrition, teen pregnancy, auto injuries and health care infections. The list stirred quite a bit of controversy because some argued these conditions are, in effect, already national priorities, receiving a great deal of attention and government resources.
Meanwhile, viral hepatitis, remains largely unknown among the general public, as well as policymakers, despite the fact that it is the fourth leading infectious cause of death in the United States. An estimated 1.25 million Americans are chronically infected with hepatitis B (one of three of the most common types of viral hepatitis, along with hepatitis A and hepatitis C), with more than half of the infected being Asian Pacific Islander Americans, according to the Asian Liver Center at Stanford University. While one in 10 Asian Pacific Americans is infected in the U.S., that compares to one in 1,000 among Caucasians, so this is clearly an especially important health issue for our ethnic community.
On a global scale, there are about 350 million people with chronic hepatitis B infection, and an estimated 78 percent of them live in Asia or the Pacific Islands.
Often dubbed the “silent epidemic,” an estimated 70 percent of persons with it do not know they are infected and risk transmitting the disease. And, yet, there are vaccinations to prevent two of the most common forms, hepatitis A and hepatitis B.
For those infected with viral hepatitis, without treatment, 15 to 40 percent will develop liver cirrhosis. An estimated 5,000 people in the U.S. die each year from hepatitis B virus-related liver cancer or cirrhosis with liver failure.
Despite these alarming facts, there remains a dearth of government leadership, public knowledge of and resources for viral hepatitis. Fang, whose Hep B Free campaign strives to turn San Francisco into the first hepatitis B-free city in the nation with free and low-cost testing and vaccinations, says without public outcry, there is no political will to get this epidemic on the map.
In a recent letter to the CDC, 16 lawmakers, including Congress members Judy Chu (D-Calif.) and Mike Honda (D-Calif.), demanded a “clear plan” for how the CDC will combat the disease. They called its omission from the list of six CDC priorities “glaring.” Their bottom line message: this, too, is a winnable battle if given the proper attention and resources. It’s an epidemic that shouldn’t remain “silent.”
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