why i was MIA recently: Cal Hep B Free

After an about one-month-long hiatus from blogging, microblogging, and anything really that has to do with writing about my personal life (whether I had one during this time is quite questionable), I believe it's about time I get in the habit of actually generating content for my personal site which I've been working on so meticulously since summer.

So naturally, my first post will reflect on what I did during this time, which mostly had to do with kicking-off a personal, non-profit venture for a really worthy cause called Cal Hep B Free.

Since pictures speak louder than words, here are some quick links:

• Cal Hep B Free PSA Video
• Cal Hep B Free Photos
• Cal Hep B Free Facebook Page
• Cal Hep B Free Website

So for those that don't know me, I've been involved with campaign to spread awareness about hepatitis B and liver cancer called the Jade Ribbon Campaign since my freshman year at Cal in 2003. Frankly, I can go on for hours about this campaign and the worthy cause/context for it, but to save you the eye sore, just read the previous Wikipedia entry (which I wrote about 3 years ago for these kind of situations) whenever you got the time and interest to learn the comprehensive details.

So why hepatitis B and liver cancer?

To put things in perspective, most people probably know of someone that is or has been affected by cancer. That's because in the world we live in today, up to 1 in 4 people have cancer, which is a pretty scary statistic. Personally, my family knows what it's like to be affected by cancer -- My mother is a breast cancer survivor and my grandfather was a victim to lung cancer. I know friends that have experienced cancer. Michelle Maykin, a Cal alumna (Class of 2004) who is recently spearheading the Project Michelle campaign, has leukemia or "blood cancer."

Even though medical technology is constantly improving and new or better medication/treatments are available every day, cancer is not something any one in the right mind would desire due to its traumatic, life-changing experience, expensive and painful medical treatments (i.e. chemotherapy), and high mortality rates.

But of all the cancers out there, one of the cancers that is actually fully preventable is liver cancer caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV). Hepatitis B is a serious infection of the liver and the leading cause of liver cancer, killing one million people every year even when a vaccine has been available for over 20 years! In fact, the hepatitis B vaccine is so effective in preventing HBV and liver cancer that the World Health Organization (WHO) has called it the first "anti-cancer vaccine."

Consider the following statistics even when a vaccine has been available for so long:

• Up to 400 million people are chronically infected by hepatitis B in the world, the majority of which are Asian and Pacific Islander (API).
• Up to 2 million people are chronically by hepatitis B in the U.S., the majority of which are API (a minority group constiuting 4.4% of the U.S. population).
• The San Francisco Bay Area has the highest hepatits B-liver cancer rate in the U.S.
• 1 in 10 Asian Pacific Islanders are chronically infected with hepatitis B.
• 1 in 4 chronically infected with hepatitis B will develop liver cancer, chirrosis, or liver failure.
• Hepatitis B is often transmitted at birth and is 10 times more common and 100 times more infectious than HIV.
• Even if you feel healthy, you may already be infected. There are often no symptoms. That's why getting a blood test is necessary to detect the disease.

While the vaccine is effective, it only prevents those uninfected in the first place from getting HBV. In other words, the vaccine is ineffective for those 400 million chronically infected around the world. This is why education and testing is also needed to address this large group of chronic carreirs and ultimately, critical towards the eradication of the global hepatitis B epidemic.

So what is Cal Hep B Free?

In short, Cal Hep B Free is a grasroots campaign to promote hepatitis B awareness, education, and testing at UC Berkeley in an attempt to address the often-overlooked chronic carriers.

In context, Cal Hep B Free is actually an attempt to extend San Francisco Hep B Free -- an unprecendented, ambitious city-wide campaign led by the San Francisco Dept. of Public Health, Asian Liver Center at Stanford University, and the AsianWeek Foundation started in 2007 that attempts to screen, vaccinate, and treat all San Francisco Asian and Pacific Islander (API) residents of hepatitis B (HBV) by providing convenient, free or low-cost testing opportunities at partnering health facilities and events -- to the East Bay starting at UC Berkeley.

The Steering Group for Cal Hep B Free (which has been formed after countless hours of planning meetings and negotiations since last March 2007) consists of the ASUC (student government at UC Berkeley), the ASUC Auxiliary (group of career professionals that provides counsel for student organizations), and Team HBV.

Here are some of the marketing materials our Media and Web Productions Team has developed this past summer for the campaign:

So what is Cal Hep B Free working on right now?

We're currently partnering with Project Michelle to organize the "B a Hero!: Save Lives. Stop Cancer" awareness concert/dance-competition on November 18, 2008.

We also plan to partner with the Asian Liver Center (ALC) at Stanford University and Asian American Donor Program (AADP) to provide free hepatitis B testing and bone marrow registration (cheek swabs) to all Cal students that day.

Lots of exciting stuff developing. Stay posted!

In the meantime, B smart, B tested, B free!

Attachments: 

Cal Hep B Free Press Release.pdf

2007- Liver Cancer in API in Bay Area 1999-2004 (Chang E., et al.).pdf

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