Advocates fight to cure prejudice
June 1, 2010
CHINA DAILY — Despite huge number of Chinese who have HBV, discrimination runs rampant.
There are more than 100 million of them in China - nearly one person in 10. They are all around us: mechanics, lawyers, teachers and students. On the streets of Beijing , it is impossible to point them out, for they laugh, cry and carry on just like the rest of us. Yet there is something very different flowing through their veins. It is their secret and curse - the hepatitis B virus (HBV).
Fighting to eliminate hepatitis
May 13, 2010
SAN FRANSISCO EXAMINER — Fiona Ma doesn’t mind being the poster child for a campaign against an infectious disease — if it means saving lives, and even if it means making Asian communities in The City slightly uncomfortable.
In Ads, Plea for Asians to Get Tests for Hepatitis
May 2, 2010
THE NEW YORK TIMES — ...Part of a provocative advertising campaign by San Francisco Hep B Free, which aims to eradicate the disease with citywide vaccinations against hepatitis B. The campaign debuts here in print and on television this week and is aimed at jarring the city's large Asian population into confronting the stubborn public health hazard of hepatitis B.
Hepatitis B Vaccination Works in China
October 19, 2009
STANFORD — Increased hepatitis vaccination in China would save thousands of lives, hundreds of millions of dollars, Stanford study shows.
A massive new program in China to provide "catch-up" inoculations against hepatitis B to more than 100 million unvaccinated children could prevent millions of infections, save tens of thousands of lives and return twice as much in savings to the Chinese economy as the program costs, according to a new study by engineering and medical researchers at Stanford University.
Obama Reaches out to Asian Americans
October 14, 2009
AFP — US President Barack Obama on Wednesday lit a lamp to celebrate the Hindu holiday Diwali as he reached out to Asian Americans with a new initiative aimed at expanding opportunities.
Obama became the first US president to personally take part in a White House ceremony for the festival of lights, lighting a "diya" oil lamp inside the executive mansion and bowing respectfully before a Hindu priest.
China to End Required Testing for Hepatitis B
October 12, 2009
THE NEW YORK TIMES — Chinese health officials will abolish mandatory testing for hepatitis B during physical exams given to prospective college students, factory workers and government employees, according to Xinhua, the state news agency.
(AFP) – Oct 14, 2009
WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama on Wednesday lit a lamp to celebrate the Hindu holiday Diwali as he reached out to Asian Americans with a new initiative aimed at expanding opportunities.
Obama became the first US president to personally take part in a White House ceremony for the festival of lights, lighting a "diya" oil lamp inside the executive mansion and bowing respectfully before a Hindu priest.
Read more here.
Joseph Christian, June 1, 2010
CHINA DAILY - Despite huge number of Chinese who have HBV, discrimination runs rampant.
There are more than 100 million of them in China - nearly one person in 10. They are all around us: mechanics, lawyers, teachers and students. On the streets of Beijing , it is impossible to point them out, for they laugh, cry and carry on just like the rest of us. Yet there is something very different flowing through their veins. It is their secret and curse - the hepatitis B virus (HBV).
According to a recent study by the Asian Liver Center at the Stanford University School of Medicine, HBV kills as many as 280,000 people every year in China - more than tuberculosis, HIV and malaria combined.
Even as those carriers worry about the health risks of HBV, a potentially life-threatening liver infection, they must also overcome the hurdle of discrimination.
Read more at China Daily.
Andrew Jacobs, October 12, 2009
BEIJING — Chinese health officials will abolish mandatory testing for hepatitis B during physical exams given to prospective college students, factory workers and government employees, according to Xinhua, the state news agency.
The new rules, announced Saturday by the Health Ministry, mean that people found to be carrying the hepatitis B virus will not be automatically barred from jobs and classrooms, a form of discrimination widely decried...
Mike Aldax - May 13, 2010
Fiona Ma doesn’t mind being the poster child for a campaign against an infectious disease — if it means saving lives, and even if it means making Asian communities in The City slightly uncomfortable.
Ma, a San Francisco Democratic assemblywoman, learned she had hepatitis B at age 22 while trying to donate blood. She began speaking out against the disease several years ago and is now backing an edgy new advertising campaign that has raised eyebrows in the Asian community.
One advertisement released this month by the nonprofit San Francisco Hep B Free features an image of 10 beauty queens lined up side-by-side, with the aggressive question at the bottom: “Which one deserves to die?”
The tone of the ad – part of the second phase of a campaign that began three years ago to eradicate the virus – is a far cry from the group’s previous slogan, "B a Hero."
"The time for softball pitches is over," Ma said...
Read more at the San Francisco Examiner
David Orenstein, October 19, 2009
A massive new program in China to provide “catch-up” inoculations against hepatitis B to more than 100 million unvaccinated children could prevent millions of infections, save tens of thousands of lives and return twice as much in savings to the Chinese economy as the program costs, according to a new study by engineering and medical researchers at Stanford University.
Hepatitis B is a pandemic in much of East Asia because it is easily transmitted from mother to child by blood or between sexual partners by other bodily fluids as well as blood. Meanwhile, the symptoms, until resulting diseases becomes life-threatening, are subtle, said Samuel So, MD, professor of surgery and the Lui Hac Minh Professor at Stanford, who is one of the study’s senior authors. Although many patients can fight off the virus, up to 300,000 a year die in China from hepatitis B-related liver cancer and other liver diseases.
Read more at the Stanford School of Medicine News Page.
Jesse McKinley, May 2, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO — It is an image both shocking and strangely serene: 10 beauty queens, each with a broad smile, sparkling earrings and a beautiful gown. And written across the bottom of the photograph is a simple, stark question.
“Which one,” it reads, “deserves to die?”
The image is part of a provocative advertising campaign by San Francisco Hep B Free, which aims to eradicate the disease with citywide vaccinations against hepatitis B. The campaign debuts here in print and on television this week and is aimed at jarring the city’s large Asian population into confronting the stubborn public health hazard of hepatitis B.
San Francisco health officials estimate that as many as 1 in 10 residents of Asian descent are infected with the virus here, a percentage that contributes to the nation’s highest rate of liver cancer, an unhappy distinction for a city that prides itself on its innovative universal health plan as well as its response to past epidemics like AIDS. In the general population, about 1 in 1,000 people are infected with hepatitis B, which attacks the liver.
Read more at The New York Times.