Join Hep B United, the National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable, CDC’s Division of Viral Hepatitis, and the Hepatitis B Foundation for a Twitter #HepChat Wednesday, June 15 at 2 p.m. EDT. The chat will highlight Hepatitis Awareness Month outreach events and allow hepatitis B and C partner organizations to share their successes, challenges, and lessons learned from their efforts.
Continue reading "Twitter Chat: Partner Highlights From Hepatitis Awareness Month"
How far are we from finding a cure for hepatitis B? We are close, said Timothy Block, PhD, president and co-founder of the Hepatitis B Foundation and its research arm, the Baruch S. Blumberg Institute. He points out that hepatitis C, once thought to be incurable, is today cured with new combination treatments.
Experts believe a cure for hepatitis B will also soon be developed. And the need for a cure has never been greater, with more than 240 million people worldwide living with chronic hepatitis B, causing 1 million deaths per year from related liver failure and liver cancer.
“Treatments are available,” explained Block, “but we have become a little too comfortable with the medications that are currently approved for use.” While these drugs are effective, interferon has many side effects and daily antivirals require lifelong use. These drugs work in only half of the infected population and reduce death rates by only about 40 to 70 percent.
What will a cure look like?
The available antivirals are similar and combining them offers no advantage. They have limited effectiveness against cccDNA, the seemingly indestructible “mini-chromosome” of the hepatitis B virus that continues to produce virus particles in infected liver cells, even in people being treated. A cure, therefore, would have to destroy or silence cccDNA and provide long-term immunity. Because one-drug treatments can lead to drug resistance, a cure would almost certainly involve combination therapy, similar to hepatitis C. Continue reading "Is a Cure for Hepatitis B Coming? Experts Say Yes"
By Christine Kukka
In 1914, the United States designated the second Sunday in May as “Mothers’ Day.” Its founder, Anna Jarvis, hoped the holiday would focus on her own mother’s work promoting peace and public health. Years later, Jarvis protested loudly when the holiday became better known for sentimentality and greeting card sales.
Our nation often loses sight of a holiday’s original intent, but this Mother’s Day we can bring back the goal of preserving public health, especially where it concerns mothers and infectious diseases.
Decades ago, researchers developed one of the most extraordinary life-saving vaccines–hepatitis B immunization. It saves lives in two ways: It protects children and adults from infection and it breaks the vicious cycle of mother-to-child infection. A baby born to a hepatitis B-infected almost always becomes infected. The vaccine, administered within hours of birth, breaks that cycle.
When the vaccine debuted in the late 1970s and early 1980s, most people with chronic hepatitis B had been infected at birth. When newborns and children are infected, their immune systems don’t recognize or attack the virus and the infection can continue indefinitely.
To stop this infection cycle, today all pregnant women are screened for hepatitis B. Babies born to infected women are immediately vaccinated and treated with HBIG (hepatitis B antibodies). This public health initiative has been extremely successful in dramatically reducing hepatitis B. However, the campaign’s focus has been primarily on newborns and the hepatitis B-infected mothers were often forgotten. Though hepatitis B infections had been identified, the infected mothers were often lost to follow-up, and this neglect continues today. Continue reading "Celebrate Mothers’ Day with High-Quality Healthcare First, Sentimentality Second"
On Tuesday, March 8, more than 120 advocates from across the U.S. fanned out on Capitol Hill to talk to their representatives about the importance of funding the Viral Hepatitis Division of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Dozens of people laid their hearts on the line and told their stories about how they, their families, and friends have been touched by hepatitis.
In meetings with Congressional staff, and in some cases their senators, they shared stories about family members who discovered they had hepatitis B only when they were diagnosed with late-stage, inoperable liver cancer. Others talked about how lucky they were to have been immunized at birth, considering their mothers were infected. Courageous advocates described losing loved ones to hepatitis B and C spread through the heroin epidemic, and recalled indifferent healthcare workers who saw only addicts instead of human beings who had lost their battle with both addiction and hepatitis.
Our goal was to get our representatives to allocate more funding for CDC’s hepatitis division, which is sorely needed. It’s CDC’s job to investigate disease outbreaks and educate the public and healthcare providers about infectious disease. For example, CDC publishes a variety of reports and promotional materials to educate people how to protect themselves against hepatitis B and C. The agency also funds a “hepatitis coordinator” in nearly every state whose job it is to help prevent hepatitis, investigate outbreaks, and collect data—a Herculean task for just one person. Continue reading "“Hepatitis on the Hill” Advocates Fight for Hepatitis Prevention, And So Can You"
How do you unite for hepatitis B? VINE TO WIN!
Join Hep B United for a national hepatitis B awareness campaign. Create an action-oriented awareness message about hepatitis B through a six-second Vine video! Hep B United will use selected video entries in its social media efforts in May 2016 to help promote Hepatitis Awareness Month. Your video could be included in its national awareness campaign!
Eligibility: Anyone and everyone may participate! You do not have to be a member of Hep B United or any organization.
What to Do: Use Vine to create a six-second video (click for example) focusing on the 2016 theme “#HepBUnite: How you unite for hepatitis B.” You can create your video alone, or with a group. Your message should focus on how you are united around hepatitis B. You could highlight hepatitis B prevention activities that you participate in, or feature a key fact about hepatitis B in your video. Although not required, Hep B United encourages you to use the materials available from the Know Hepatitis B campaign!
How to Enter:
Contest Entry Requirements
Be Creative and Have Fun!
Selection of Winners and Prizes
Selected entries will be included in the Hep B United social media campaign! Two finalists will win $50 each!
One Grand Prize winner will win $100!
Submission Period: Post and submit your Vines between
April 11 and April 29, 2016, (contest closes at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on April 29)
Questions? Please contact Pavitri Dwivedi at Pavitri.Dwivedi@hepb.org
By Christine Kukka
A few weeks ago, an ill-informed New England governor proclaimed illegal immigrants were bringing in infectious diseases, including hepatitis, HIV, and tuberculosis. Recently, similar anti-immigration, fear-mongering from presidential candidates has filled the airways.
For hundreds of years, disease has been used as reasons to stop immigration to the United States. During the early 1800s, officials claimed the Irish brought cholera into the country. The Italians were believed to carry polio and tuberculosis was called the Jewish disease. In 1900, the Asian-American community in San Francisco was believed to be infected with bubonic plague that posed a threat to public health. Residents were subjected to mandatory injections with an experimental drug until a court order halted the local public health campaign.
Throughout the 19th and 20th century, “politics was saturated with attacks on immigrants as diseased intruders to the body politic,” wrote American University history professor Alan M. Kraut in Foreign Bodies: The Perennial Negotiation over Health and Culture in a Nation of Immigrants. This dialogue led to revision of the 1882 Immigration Act to exclude, “persons suffering from a loathsome or a dangerous contagious disease” from entry into the United States. Continue reading "The Ugly Intersection of Prejudice, Immigration, and Hepatitis B"
Cold season is here and sometimes the flu vaccine and washing our hands just aren’t enough to keep colds at bay. If you do get sick, make sure the over-the-counter (OTC) medication you take doesn’t damage your liver while it’s relieving your cold symptoms
Acetaminophen (brand name Tylenol) is the most popular painkiller in the United States. (In other parts of the world it is known as Paracetamol.) Not only is it found in the 8 billion acetaminophen pills Americans take each year to reduce aches and pains, it’s also found in cough and congestion medications. When we have hepatitis B, we need to be careful we don’t unintentionally overdose when we take acetaminophen pills and cough or sinus medications. Continue reading "It’s Flu Season: Protect Your Liver from Unintentional Acetaminophen (Tylenol) Overdose"
Flu season is here and if you or a family member lives with chronic hepatitis B, it’s time to get a flu shot as soon as possible!
Why? According to an article in the November 2015 issue of the medical journal Vaccine, chronic hepatitis B patients who get a flu shot have a lower rate of flu-related hospitalizations than patients who skip the annual flu vaccine. Continue reading "Cold and Flu Season Is Here. If You Live with Hepatitis B, You Need a Flu Shot. Now."
With the cost of health care and prescription drugs soaring, it’s important to choose health insurance carefully when you take hepatitis B medications and need frequent check-ups and lab tests.
In the next two months, Medicare recipients, people who get insurance through their jobs and consumers buying coverage through the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) will be selecting insurance plans during open enrollment.
If you take antivirals or interferon and have frequent lab tests and doctor visits, it’s important that you select the plan that:
Continue reading "Shop Carefully for the Best Insurance Plan When You Have Hepatitis B"
By Christine Kukka
Telling someone you have hepatitis B is almost always followed by the question, “how did you get it?”
The question can feel like an invasion of privacy or an indictment. Behind the question lurks a desire for reassurance that hepatitis B won’t happen to them, but of course it can. And that’s why we should answer and tell our story.
On a global scale, the story of hepatitis B is the story of humanity. How we and our forebears became infected results from centuries of human migrations, the transatlantic slave trade, political upheaval, poverty, re-used medical devices and ineffective public health policies. Continue reading "“How Did You Get Hepatitis B?” Why We Should Answer"
