CPIC integral to evaluation of campaign's effectiveness; other areas to replicate approach
FREMONT, Calif., Jan. 12, 2011
PR Newswire Press Release
The Cancer Prevention Institute of California (CPIC) and three other institutions have released new research findings to demonstrate that the massive collaborative effort known as the San Francisco Hep B Free campaign has increased awareness, testing and vaccination for chronic hepatitis B – a silent killer and the leading cause of liver cancer – in the city's Asian and Pacific Islander community. Asians and Pacific Islanders are the racial/ethnic group at highest risk of chronic hepatitis B.
CPIC Research Scientist Ellen Chang, Sc.D., played an essential role in the breakthrough study just published in the Journal of Community Health. She and colleagues from the San Francisco Department of Public Health, the AsianWeek Foundation, and the Asian Liver Center at Stanford University found that Hep B Free provides communities with a powerful and cost-efficient model to prevent hepatitis B and associated liver cancer in at-risk populations.
Last May, the New York Times covered the campaign, which started in 2007, for its striking yet controversial advertisements.
"Because of this innovative and inclusive campaign, which pulled together 160 public and private partners across San Francisco, thousands of high-risk individuals were vaccinated, preventing them from ever developing liver cancer due to hepatitis B," said Dr. Chang. "Thousands more were screened for chronic hepatitis B, enabling those who tested positive to be routinely screened for liver cancer to catch the disease early and cure it."
The campaign was the first city-wide effort to combat hepatitis B and the first to focus so broadly on Asian and Pacific Islander health. Partners included the Asian and Pacific Islander community, the health care system, policymakers, public officials, businesses, and the general public.
Dr. Chang and her study collaborators showed an 8% increase in hepatitis B screening tests throughout San Francisco from 2006 (just before the campaign was launched) to 2008 and a 17% increase in tests for immunity from the disease. Community events and fairs designed to increase hepatitis B awareness and prevention reached 200,000 individuals.
Prior to the campaign's launch, 30% of primary health care providers in San Francisco could not correctly identify the screening test for hepatitis B and most underestimated the burden of hepatitis B in Asians and Pacific Islanders. As a result of the educational events and materials distributed, more than half of primary care physicians in San Francisco and all hospitals in the city pledged to screen Asian and Pacific Islander individuals routinely for the disease.
For the entire article, and more information about CPIC's research study,
click here
For a PDF version of the article, click here
SOURCE Cancer Prevention Institute of California
This press release was also featured in:
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Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Friday, January 7, 2011
What You Should Know About Hepatitis B
Featured in Vietnam Talking Points
Posted January 7, 2011
By Jennie Le
When I was a child, I lost someone close due to the compromising effects of the Hepatitis B Virus (HBV). As a result of HBV, liver cancer crept up on him so much sooner and faster than it should have. He died when he was only 42.
Now, I’m not a crusader for HBV awareness, prevention, and screening. In fact, I don’t think I paid much attention to this topic very much until recently. However, after learning much more about this virus and realizing how close to home it’s hit, I wanted to make sure my fellow readers have insight on this detrimental infection.
What is HBV? Hepatitis B is a disease caused by infection with the hepatitis B virus. Chronic infection with HBV can lead to liver cirrhosis, liver failure, and liver cancer. About 60% – 80% of primary liver cancer worldwide is caused by chronic HBV infection. There have been studies that say HBV is 50 -100 times more infectious than HIV and can survive out of the body for up to 7 days. Worldwide, 370 – 400 million suffer from chronic HBV versus 40 million who suffer from HIV. (Disclaimer: My point isn’t to say HIV isn’t as important to learn about and prevent, but merely to show how HBV deserves just as much attention as HIV gets in education and media.)
How is it transmitted? Many people with chronic HPV exhibit no symptoms and feel pretty healthy. It can be transmitted through 1) a mother to a child at the time of birth, 2) contact with infected blood, 3) and unprotected sex. Among the Asian & Pacific Islander (API) community, transmission of HPV often occurs during birth from mother to child. Because HPV is often symptomless, the disease can progress undetected until it is too late and treatment options are limited or ineffective.
How does it affect America? In the US, there are an estimated 60,000 people infected with HBV each year, with 5,000 people dying each year from HPV related liver cancer or cirrhosis with liver failure. We lose more than $700 million in work and medical loss costs due to HPV-related conditions. An estimated 1.25 million Americans are chronically affected with HBV. Over half affected are API Americans.
How does it affect the API community? As many as 1 out of 10 API Americans are chronically affected as opposed to 1 in 1000 Caucasian Americans. About 1 out of 4 people who have HBV will get liver cancer. In addition, APIs are 100 times more likely to have chronic HBV than Caucasians and have the highest rate of liver cancer for any racial/ethnic group, which is the second most common cause of cancer in API men.
What has been done in our community? In 2007, San Francisco set a citywide campaign to be the first HBV free city in the nation through “San Francisco Hep B Free.” This unprecedented 2-year campaign began in April hoping to screen, vaccinate, and treat all San Francisco API residents of HPV by providing convenient, free or low-costing testing opportunities. SF has the highest liver cancer rate in the nation, and understanding that Hepatitis B was responsible for 80% of all liver cancers among APIs, the campaign attempted to educate and treat people about HBV.
What are some myths surrounding HBV? Hepatitis B is NOT transmitted through
1. Food/water
2. Casual contact such as hugging or shaking hands
3. Kissing, sneezing or coughing
4. Breastfeeding
What can we do to prevent/treat it? Since the diagnosis of hepatitis B is so easily missed by both patients and their physicians, the only way to diagnose for hepatitis B infection is through a simple and inexpensive blood test. It is preventable with a simple vaccine series. By identifying the 1 in 10 API Americans who are unaware of their HBV, vaccinating those who don’t have it now, and educating the community how the issue at hand and how to handle it, we will see the high numbers of those affected by HBV drop.
Being involved and aware are simple. Get tested. The next time you visit your doctor, ask for an HBV test if you haven’t already. This isn’t included in your routine physical exam, so be sure to request the two blood tests to determine if you have HBV. Get vaccinated. If you are negative for the surface antigen and surface antibody, get the 3-shot Hepatitis B vaccination. Get involved. Learn more about HBV and share it with your friends and family.
For the entire article, including more information on HBV, click here
Posted January 7, 2011
By Jennie Le
When I was a child, I lost someone close due to the compromising effects of the Hepatitis B Virus (HBV). As a result of HBV, liver cancer crept up on him so much sooner and faster than it should have. He died when he was only 42.
Now, I’m not a crusader for HBV awareness, prevention, and screening. In fact, I don’t think I paid much attention to this topic very much until recently. However, after learning much more about this virus and realizing how close to home it’s hit, I wanted to make sure my fellow readers have insight on this detrimental infection.
What is HBV? Hepatitis B is a disease caused by infection with the hepatitis B virus. Chronic infection with HBV can lead to liver cirrhosis, liver failure, and liver cancer. About 60% – 80% of primary liver cancer worldwide is caused by chronic HBV infection. There have been studies that say HBV is 50 -100 times more infectious than HIV and can survive out of the body for up to 7 days. Worldwide, 370 – 400 million suffer from chronic HBV versus 40 million who suffer from HIV. (Disclaimer: My point isn’t to say HIV isn’t as important to learn about and prevent, but merely to show how HBV deserves just as much attention as HIV gets in education and media.)
How is it transmitted? Many people with chronic HPV exhibit no symptoms and feel pretty healthy. It can be transmitted through 1) a mother to a child at the time of birth, 2) contact with infected blood, 3) and unprotected sex. Among the Asian & Pacific Islander (API) community, transmission of HPV often occurs during birth from mother to child. Because HPV is often symptomless, the disease can progress undetected until it is too late and treatment options are limited or ineffective.
How does it affect America? In the US, there are an estimated 60,000 people infected with HBV each year, with 5,000 people dying each year from HPV related liver cancer or cirrhosis with liver failure. We lose more than $700 million in work and medical loss costs due to HPV-related conditions. An estimated 1.25 million Americans are chronically affected with HBV. Over half affected are API Americans.
How does it affect the API community? As many as 1 out of 10 API Americans are chronically affected as opposed to 1 in 1000 Caucasian Americans. About 1 out of 4 people who have HBV will get liver cancer. In addition, APIs are 100 times more likely to have chronic HBV than Caucasians and have the highest rate of liver cancer for any racial/ethnic group, which is the second most common cause of cancer in API men.
What has been done in our community? In 2007, San Francisco set a citywide campaign to be the first HBV free city in the nation through “San Francisco Hep B Free.” This unprecedented 2-year campaign began in April hoping to screen, vaccinate, and treat all San Francisco API residents of HPV by providing convenient, free or low-costing testing opportunities. SF has the highest liver cancer rate in the nation, and understanding that Hepatitis B was responsible for 80% of all liver cancers among APIs, the campaign attempted to educate and treat people about HBV.
What are some myths surrounding HBV? Hepatitis B is NOT transmitted through
1. Food/water
2. Casual contact such as hugging or shaking hands
3. Kissing, sneezing or coughing
4. Breastfeeding
What can we do to prevent/treat it? Since the diagnosis of hepatitis B is so easily missed by both patients and their physicians, the only way to diagnose for hepatitis B infection is through a simple and inexpensive blood test. It is preventable with a simple vaccine series. By identifying the 1 in 10 API Americans who are unaware of their HBV, vaccinating those who don’t have it now, and educating the community how the issue at hand and how to handle it, we will see the high numbers of those affected by HBV drop.
Being involved and aware are simple. Get tested. The next time you visit your doctor, ask for an HBV test if you haven’t already. This isn’t included in your routine physical exam, so be sure to request the two blood tests to determine if you have HBV. Get vaccinated. If you are negative for the surface antigen and surface antibody, get the 3-shot Hepatitis B vaccination. Get involved. Learn more about HBV and share it with your friends and family.
For the entire article, including more information on HBV, click here
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Top 10 Hepatitis B News Items for 2010
Published in hbvadvocate.org
December 30, 2010
By Christine M. Kukka
A potential new, powerful treatment for hepatitis B, treating pregnant women to prevent infection of newborns, increased political and medical awareness of hepatitis B, and health care reform provisions have all had an impact on the hepatitis B community during 2010.
Three years ago, there were far fewer articles, studies and reports about monitoring, treating and preventing hepatitis B. This year, numerous studies and clinical trials have tracked the effectiveness of antivirals and interferon, and researchers have come up with new methods to monitor liver health, and screen those at risk of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection.
Here are some of the major discoveries, reports, and public health initiatives that have had an impact on hepatitis B worldwide in 2010:
A National Model Emerges to Screen and Treat Asian-Americans for Hepatitis B: In 2007, community organizers in San Francisco began organizing the Hep B Free Campaign to increase screening, treatment, and immunization for hepatitis B. The initiative, which started with minimal funding, now involves more than 50 public and private health care organizations, businesses, and educational institutions, as well as Major League Baseball's San Francisco Giants, and has become a national model for increasing access to health care for those at risk of HBV.
The campaign, focusing on a city that has the highest rate of liver cancer in the country, has created seven low-cost public access hepatitis B screening and vaccination sites through collaboration with community partners, public and private hospitals, doctors, insurance and pharmaceutical companies, and non-profit organizations.
San Francisco, with its high percentage of Asian-American residents, has the highest rate of liver cancer in the nation and is the gateway for immigrants from Asian countries where there is a high prevalence of hepatitis B. The model is now being copied in San Mateo, San Jose, Orange County and Los Angeles, and federal and state health officials are touting its success and suggesting it be used in other cities with at-risk populations across the country.
Activists Utilize Provocative Social Marketing to Fight Hepatitis B: For years, critics have faulted hepatitis B activists for their low-profile, under-the-radar efforts to raise awareness of hepatitis B among those at risk for the infection, particularly Asian-Americans. Unlike AIDS activists, who publicly acknowledged their infections and staged public protests to raise awareness and push for fast-track development of AIDS drugs, hepatitis B organizers have been quiet, in part because many Asian-Americans found the culture of public protest and discussion of illness and death distasteful.
As part of San Francisco’s Hep B Free campaign, the Asian-American advertising agency DAE produced a provocative ad campaign entitled “Which One Deserves to Die” to alert the public that 1 in 10 Asian-Americans is chronically infected with HBV.
The posters appeared in local ethnic and mainstream newspapers, billboards, and bus transit boards in May 2010 in honor of the 15th anniversary of National Hepatitis Awareness Month and Asian Pacific Heritage Month. They showed groups of Asian-American beauty contestants, a sports team, and a family of 10 with the caption, “Which one deserves to die?”
To read entire article, click here
Read article in PDF Format
December 30, 2010
By Christine M. Kukka
A potential new, powerful treatment for hepatitis B, treating pregnant women to prevent infection of newborns, increased political and medical awareness of hepatitis B, and health care reform provisions have all had an impact on the hepatitis B community during 2010.
Three years ago, there were far fewer articles, studies and reports about monitoring, treating and preventing hepatitis B. This year, numerous studies and clinical trials have tracked the effectiveness of antivirals and interferon, and researchers have come up with new methods to monitor liver health, and screen those at risk of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection.
Here are some of the major discoveries, reports, and public health initiatives that have had an impact on hepatitis B worldwide in 2010:
A National Model Emerges to Screen and Treat Asian-Americans for Hepatitis B: In 2007, community organizers in San Francisco began organizing the Hep B Free Campaign to increase screening, treatment, and immunization for hepatitis B. The initiative, which started with minimal funding, now involves more than 50 public and private health care organizations, businesses, and educational institutions, as well as Major League Baseball's San Francisco Giants, and has become a national model for increasing access to health care for those at risk of HBV.
The campaign, focusing on a city that has the highest rate of liver cancer in the country, has created seven low-cost public access hepatitis B screening and vaccination sites through collaboration with community partners, public and private hospitals, doctors, insurance and pharmaceutical companies, and non-profit organizations.
San Francisco, with its high percentage of Asian-American residents, has the highest rate of liver cancer in the nation and is the gateway for immigrants from Asian countries where there is a high prevalence of hepatitis B. The model is now being copied in San Mateo, San Jose, Orange County and Los Angeles, and federal and state health officials are touting its success and suggesting it be used in other cities with at-risk populations across the country.
Activists Utilize Provocative Social Marketing to Fight Hepatitis B: For years, critics have faulted hepatitis B activists for their low-profile, under-the-radar efforts to raise awareness of hepatitis B among those at risk for the infection, particularly Asian-Americans. Unlike AIDS activists, who publicly acknowledged their infections and staged public protests to raise awareness and push for fast-track development of AIDS drugs, hepatitis B organizers have been quiet, in part because many Asian-Americans found the culture of public protest and discussion of illness and death distasteful.
As part of San Francisco’s Hep B Free campaign, the Asian-American advertising agency DAE produced a provocative ad campaign entitled “Which One Deserves to Die” to alert the public that 1 in 10 Asian-Americans is chronically infected with HBV.
The posters appeared in local ethnic and mainstream newspapers, billboards, and bus transit boards in May 2010 in honor of the 15th anniversary of National Hepatitis Awareness Month and Asian Pacific Heritage Month. They showed groups of Asian-American beauty contestants, a sports team, and a family of 10 with the caption, “Which one deserves to die?”
To read entire article, click here
Read article in PDF Format
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