Patient Advocacy

Expert Legislative Testimony
Our medical and scientific experts, and outreach staff regularly provide expert testimony about hepatitis B to state and federal legislators. We have successfully advocated for funds to support hepatitis B prevention, education and research programs.

Institute of Medicine Meeting on Viral Hepatitis

At its first public meeting held on Thursday, December 4, 2008, in Washington, D.C., the IOM Committee heard presentations from John Ward, Dale Hu and Cindy Weinbaum representing CDC/DVH and from Martha Saly and Chris Taylor representing NVHR. Community presentations were given by Lorren Sandt from the Hepatitis C Caring Ambassadors Program and Joan Block from the Hepatitis B Foundation. Following the scheduled presentations, comments and testimony were accepted from the public

With funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Division of Viral Hepatitis (DVH) and the National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable (NVHR), the Institute of Medicine (IOM) has formed a committee to study the prevention and control of viral hepatitis in the United States. In their statement of work, the IOM Committee is charged with determining strategies to prevent new hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections, determining strategies to reduce morbidity and mortality related to chronic HBV and HCV infections and assessing the type and quality of data needed from state and local viral hepatitis surveillance systems to guide and evaluate prevention services.

The committee will also assess current prevention and control activities and identify priorities for research, policy and action, highlighting issues that warrant further investigations and opportunities for collaboration between private and public sectors. A report is expected to be released in early 2010.

For more information on the IOM Committee on Prevention and Control of Viral Hepatitis in the United States, and the statement of work for the committee, please visit the IOM Website. If you have not had the opportunity to provide input/recommendations to the Committee regarding their scope of work, please feel free to submit testimony to: viralhepatitis@nas.edu.

Read the National Viral Hepatitis Rouundtable, Hepatitis B Foundation, and Caring Ambassadors testimonies:

Meeting the needs of all those affected by hepatitis B is an important priority of the Hepatitis B Foundation. In order to help build a stronger and more visible hepatitis B community, we initiated the first-ever national hepatitis B patient conference in 2001. This was made possible through our ongoing partnership with the only Online Hepatitis B Support Group.

B Informed Patient Conference
We sponsor the only national conference for those living with chronic hepatitis B. Patients and their loved ones, parents of children, and health care providers all gather to share their stories and information in a caring and supportive environment. Learn more.

Hepatitis B Information and Support Listserv (HB-L)
We have a strong partnership with the Hepatitis B Info and Support List, which is the only hepatitis B support group on the Internet. Together, we help provide a focus for the hepatitis B community. This is a well-supervised list with more than 500 members who log on from around the world to exchange information and provide emotional support to one another. Co-owners Steve Bingham and Sheree Martin are an excellent resource for both the List and the HBF.