Hep B Blog

New Hepatitis B Treatment Guidelines Revealed at AASLD 2015 Conference

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The American Association for the Study of Liver Disease (AASLD), the organization that defines how doctors should treat hepatitis B and other liver ailments, unveiled new hepatitis B treatment guidelines this week at its annual conference in San Francisco.

The new guidelines are published here.  Patients should review them and discuss any updates that address their individual conditions with their physicians. Continue reading "New Hepatitis B Treatment Guidelines Revealed at AASLD 2015 Conference"

The Veterans Administration Ignores an Enemy on the Homefront: Hepatitis B

Courtesy of the U.S. Defense Health Agency.
Courtesy of the U.S. Defense Health Agency.

With Veterans Day comes reports about the lack of adequate mental health care for men and women returning from war. There is another, invisible health issue threatening veterans of all ages–hepatitis B.

Few veterans have ever been screened or treated for hepatitis B though their infection rate is four-times the national average.

The percentage of veterans infected with hepatitis B may actually be higher, but no one knows. Only 15 percent of U.S. veterans have ever been screened for hepatitis B. Among the few screened and diagnosed with chronic hepatitis B, only 25 percent have received antiviral treatment and only 13 percent have been screened for liver cancer. Continue reading "The Veterans Administration Ignores an Enemy on the Homefront: Hepatitis B"

The Annual Hepatitis B Check-up: Facing Mortality and a Missing History

Image by worradmu, courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
Image by worradmu, courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

For more than 20 years, I have accompanied my daughter to her annual hepatitis B check-up with her liver specialist. She is 22 and does not need me to come, but I always go out of habit and love.

After the appointment, we sit eating lunch and I talk about how lucky she is that her liver has been healthy and her viral load undetectable for many years. Recently, she started testing negative for the hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). However, she has never developed hepatitis B surface antibodies. Her immune system has cleaned house, but has lacked the power to produce enough surface antibodies to show up on lab tests and declare her free of infection.

For the second year in a row, her doctor gave her a hepatitis B vaccine shot, an experiment to see if the injection of HBsAg would spur her immune system to generate enough surface antibodies to register in a lab test. Continue reading "The Annual Hepatitis B Check-up: Facing Mortality and a Missing History"

Shop Carefully for the Best Insurance Plan When You Have Hepatitis B

Image courtesy of digitalart at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Image courtesy of digitalart at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

With the cost of health care and prescription drugs soaring, it’s important to choose health insurance carefully when you take hepatitis B medications and need frequent check-ups and lab tests.

In the next two months, Medicare recipients, people who get insurance through their jobs and consumers buying coverage through the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) will be selecting insurance plans during open enrollment.

If you take antivirals or interferon and have frequent lab tests and doctor visits, it’s important that you select the plan that:

  • Has your specialist or primary care doctor and lab in its network,
  • And offers the lowest copay for the drugs you need.

Continue reading "Shop Carefully for the Best Insurance Plan When You Have Hepatitis B"

Want to Avoid Liver Cancer? There Are Things You Can Control

Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

We who live with hepatitis B know that avoiding alcohol and cigarettes go a long way toward reducing our risk of liver cancer. But there are new threats emerging. Researchers are finding that obesity, diabetes and developing fatty liver from unhealthy food and a sedentary lifestyle can be just as dangerous to our livers.

In a recent study, published in the Journal of Hepatology, researchers found:

  • If you have chronic hepatitis and are obese with a fatty liver, your liver cancer risk increases 1.5 to 4.5 times
  • And, if you have hepatitis B and diabetes, your liver cancer risk climbs two- to three-fold.

This is a sobering realization that our lifestyle and our weight matter a lot when it comes to how long we will live. We may like to think we won’t develop liver cancer because our viral load is low or our liver tests don’t show any damage, but sitting all day and over-eating are just as dangerous. Continue reading "Want to Avoid Liver Cancer? There Are Things You Can Control"

Your Doctor Not Screening You for Liver Cancer? Time for a Talk

Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The longer we have hepatitis B, the higher our risk of developing liver cancer. With every decade of life, our liver cancer risk increases 2.7-times, according to a report on Viral Hepatitis in the Elderly published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

But current medical guidelines don’t spell out exactly when liver cancer testing should begin in many hepatitis B patients who don’t have liver damage (cirrhosis) or a family history of liver cancer, and are not of Asian or African descent.

Age is clearly an important factor when it comes to liver cancer, “… but current guidelines only provide age-specific recommendations for (liver cancer) surveillance in hepatitis B carriers of Asian ethnicity (men over age 40 and women over age 50),” a team of University of Miami and Veterans Affairs researchers wrote in the journal article. Continue reading "Your Doctor Not Screening You for Liver Cancer? Time for a Talk"

Join Us for a Twitter Chat- Liver Cancer is Preventable

Screen Shot 2015-10-07 at 5.24.25 PMOctober is Liver Cancer Awareness Month. Join the Hepatitis B Foundation and the National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable for a twitter chat, featuring hepatitis and liver cancer expert Dr. Robert Gish, at 2p.m. EDT Tuesday, October 20.

Dr. Gish, professor consultant at Stanford University and medical director of the Hepatitis B Foundation and others will be chatting about liver cancer, hepatitis B and C prevention and treatment, health disparities, and resources for awareness and advocacy.

Below are the topics that will be discussed during the chat. Please consider how you might wish to contribute to the conversation! Got any resources you might like to share?

Q1 What is liver cancer and why is it so deadly
Q2 What are the specific risk factors for liver cancer?
Q3 What are some ways to help prevent liver cancer and hepatitis?
Q4 What can be done to help prevent liver cancer for people living with chronic hepatitis B or C?
Q5 What are the health disparities related to liver cancer and viral hepatitis?
Q6 What can we do to raise awareness of viral hepatitis and liver cancer?
Q7 What additional resources are available to learn more about viral hepatitis and liver cancer?

Join the conversation with the hashtag #Liverchat

Confirmed participants and handles for the chat include:

  • Hepatitis B Foundation – @hepbfoundation
  • National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable – @NVHR1
  • Dr. Robert Gish – tweeting from @LiverCancerConn
  • CDC’s, Division of Viral Hepatitis – @cdchep
  • CDC National Prevention Information Network – @CDCNPIN
  • Hep B United – @HepBUnited
  • American Liver Foundation –  @liverUSA
  • Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations – @HepBPolicy
  • Latino Commission on AIDS – @LatinoCommAIDS
  • Charles B Wang Community Health Center – @CBWCHC
  • Caring Ambassadors – @CAP_HepatitisC
  • Coalition Against Hepatitis For People of African Origin – @CHIPO_HBV
  • National Black Leadership Coalition on AIDS – @NBLCA
  • National Association of County & City Health Officials – @NACCHOalerts
  • Asian Health Coalition – @AAPInews
  • Asian American Community Health – @apcaaz
  • International Community Health Services – @supportichs
  • Prevent Cancer Foundation – @PreventCancer
  • Hep B United Philadelphia – @HepBUnitedPhila
  • Hep Free NYC – @HepFreeNYC

We’d love to hear from you at info@hepb.org if you plan to participate or have any questions about joining!

 

Get Tested for Liver Cancer, Your Life May Depend on It

Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

October is Liver Cancer Awareness Month. It may be a sleeper of a event when compared to other health campaigns, but for us who live with viral hepatitis, it’s an uncomfortable but critical reminder of the importance of monitoring our liver health to prevent cancer.

Viral hepatitis, especially B and C, are viral infections that can cause liver cancer  (also called hepatocellular carcinoma or HCC.) Researchers are still studying why some people are more prone to liver cancer, but we who live with chronic hepatitis B or C have a 25 to 40 percent lifetime risk of developing liver cancer. The infection, which hijacks our liver cells to manufacture more virus, causes inflammation, scarring and even cancer as the liver cells grow out of control.

The longer we are infected with viral hepatitis, the higher our risk of developing liver cancer. While liver cancer often occurs in people with cirrhosis (severe liver scarring), some of us develop cancer without cirrhosis. Continue reading "Get Tested for Liver Cancer, Your Life May Depend on It"

Growing Older with Hepatitis B: Prevention and Precautions Still Matter

Image courtesy of Ambro at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Image courtesy of Ambro at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Most people living with chronic hepatitis B today are over age 50, and like their younger counterparts, they need to prevent spreading hepatitis B to their sexual partners, housemates, and neighbors in assisted living facilities.

You’re never too old for safe sex: You may not have to worry about pregnancy any more, but you still need to protect yourself and your partner against sexually transmitted diseases such as hepatitis B. Using a condom (and keeping a barrier between you and potentially infectious body fluids) is essential because many seniors have not been immunized against hepatitis B.

The widespread marketing of erectile dysfunction drugs allows for sex by older men, and thinning and dryness of vaginal tissue in older women may raise their risk of infection during intercourse. Continue reading "Growing Older with Hepatitis B: Prevention and Precautions Still Matter"

When Is That Pain Hep B-related and When Is It Something Else?

Image courtesy of Ohmega1982 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Image courtesy of Ohmega1982 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

When people with chronic hepatitis B experience abdominal pain, we often wonder if it’s related to our liver and if our hepatitis B is getting worse.

According to experts, hepatitis B rarely causes abdominal pain. Here are some insights to help you understand what might be behind your abdominal pain when you live with chronic hepatitis B.

First, it’s not called the silent infection for nothing. When first infected, most children and nearly 70 percent of adults never experience any direct symptoms from hepatitis B. When people do have symptoms, such as aches, nausea and fever, they usually last for only a few days. Only a very small percentage have symptoms that persist long-term. Continue reading "When Is That Pain Hep B-related and When Is It Something Else?"