To make Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) aware of Hepatitis B, the Obama administration has started an intensive information drive to discuss the risks, treatment and prevention of the disease.
Already, the President’s Advisory Commission on AAPIs is coordinating with local groups in various cities for the campaign.
“We really want to make sure AAPIs are aware of this disease,” Rozita Lee said in an interview.
Lee is one of the commissioners in the president’s advisory board. The commission was created last year as part of the White House’s initiative to improve lives of AAPI immigrants.
“This is one of the priorities that we are working on because of the prevalence of the disease among AAPIs,” Lee also said.
“One in 10 individuals has the disease. Globally, there are 300 to 400 million people infected. The estimate is every 45 seconds, somebody dies from it,” Dr. Noel Fajardo said during a focused group discussion in Las Vegas last June 25.
The Las Vegas-based gastroenterologist was speaker at a discussion attended by Lee, members of the local Asian-American community as well as officers of the Nevada chapter of National Federation of Filipino-American Associations (NaFFAA).
Fajardo, of Las Vegas Gastroenterology, is spearheading a city-wide campaign that targets AAPIs, particularly the Filipino community.
“The Philippines, being in a high endemic region, the risk in our community is very high,” he said.
Hepatitis B is an infectious illness caused by a virus which infects the liver and causes inflammation and jaundice. Left untreated, chronic hepatitis B may eventually cause liver cirrhosis and liver cancer.
“The virulence of Hepatitis B, it is 100 times more infectious than HIV. It’s related to viral load. If you have the virus in you, you can pass it on,” Fajardo said.
The highly-contagious disease can be passed on from a mother to a newborn, by sexual contact, or sharing contaminated needles and syringes.
“In the (Filipino) community, it is usually transmitted vertically, meaning from the mother to child during childbirth,” he said.
Because individuals with Hepatitis B do not feel any symptoms, these people are not aware they are ill until the later stage when the liver is already damaged, Fajardo noted.
“The most common manifestation is liver cancer,” he told the audience.
As such, screening for the Hepatitis B is highly recommended, he said. The blood test used to check for this infection will also show if the person has antibodies against the disease. Lacking these, the person will need to get immunization. If an individual tests positive for the disease, the person will need to get treatment.
“We need to understand the urgency as to why this is a healthcare crisis. We’ve reached certain achievements over the past months but we want to do more,” Fajardo said.
“One thing peculiar to (the Filipino) community is we as a group is not interested in lining up to have our blood drawn. We’re very educated, sophisticated and private,” he added.
As such, he recommends that screening be done in doctors’ offices. I want your information to be covered under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
This federal law regulates, among others, the handling of medical information to ensure patient privacy
“The clinic is always HIPPA-protected. We know (information) needs to be treated very sensitively,” Fajardo said.
(with Robert Macabagdal/AJPress)
(www.asianjournal.com)
(Las Vegas June 30-July 6, 2011 Sec A pg.1)
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