Fighting to eliminate hepatitis

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