This web site is initiated by a Primary Care Physician who in 25 years of medical practice, has experienced firsthand the impact and ravages of hepatitis infection on his patients and their families. He has seen patients die prematurely early of liver cancer caused by chronic hepatitis infection, leaving behind young children, mourned by their families and friends. Very often, they were in shock because they were unaware of their disease which did not exhibit any symptoms until it has progressed to a late stage beyond cure. And yet much of that pain and suffering could be avoided because hepatitis infection could be prevented, treated and controlled. Given adequate resources, education, prevention and surveillance programs can be put in place to stamp out hepatitis infection.
Alarmed by the general lack of understanding, sometimes even of the medical community, of hepatitis infection as a public health threat and as a major cause of liver cancer, and keenly aware of the inadequate funding to carry out hepatitis related programs, he feels compelled to act. Driven by personal conviction that “Together We Can”, he is reaching out to you and through you to your friends, to write to your congressional representatives to petition for increased funding to CDC and NIH to carry out much needed prevention, control and surveillance programs to control the spread of the deadly disease of hepatitis infection.
With the help of volunteers, this website is developed by the Chinese American Medical Society Mid-Atlantic Chapter, in conjunction with the Hepatitis B Foundation, with a small grant given by AAPCHO. It is intended as a convenient tool for use by all hepatitis advocacy groups and individuals to send e-mails to Congress from one centralized source. This will enable them to present a united front, and facilitate the gathering of statistics which will provide important data for the advocacy effort.
Credit for the translation into Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese goes to The Asian American Liver Cancer Educational Program under the leadership of Professor Hee-Soon Juon, Dept. of Health, Behavior & Society, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Web design is by Maggie Chan, program by Leo Chan.
