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Category Archives: Hepatitis B Prevention

Hepatitis B Advocacy, Hepatitis B Diagnosis & Monitoring, Hepatitis B Prevention, Living with Hepatitis B

Ten Things Women and Mothers Can Do to Combat Hepatitis B

May 10, 2017 hepbtalk 2 Comments

Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

By Christine Kukka

Don’t know your hepatitis B status? Get tested. Worldwide an estimated 90 percent of people with chronic hepatitis B don’t know they’re infected. In the U.S. only 25% are aware of their infection. Unfortunately, many doctors won’t test you for hepatitis B unless you request the test. If you or your parents come from or live in a country with high rates of hepatitis B, or if you’ve been sexually active or have other risk factors , get tested. It could save your life.

Get tested for sexually-transmitted infections (STIs). More than half of us will have an STI in our lifetime, and in the U.S. about half of new hepatitis B infections are sexually-transmitted. Many doctors don’t test for STIs. In a national survey of U.S. physicians, fewer than one-third routinely screened patients for STIs. To make matters worse, many women are afraid to talk to doctors about their sexual history and STI risk. Be brave, ask your doctor to test you for STIs and hepatitis B if you think you are at risk.

Get immunized against hepatitis B. Not sure if you’ve been immunized during childhood? Tell your healthcare provider and get tested and immunized. Even if you were vaccinated in the past, getting a second vaccine series won’t harm you. If your partner has hepatitis B, getting vaccinated is critical to protect your health. Get tested first. Practice safe sex until you have received all three shots. About one to two months after your third shot, get tested for the hepatitis B surface antibody (called titers). If you have at least 10 mIU/mL of surface antibodies, you are permanently protected against this serious liver disease.

Infected? In Love? Disclose. When you disclose your hepatitis B status before sex – even if it’s safe sex with a condom – you don’t jeopardize your partner’s health or his/her trust in you. Talking about hepatitis B helps reduce the stigma surrounding this infection and may prompt the person to get vaccinated. How do you tell a potential partner that you have hepatitis B? Calmly and carefully. Do some research so you have a thorough understanding about hepatitis B, which will make it easier for you to calmly explain it. The more you know, the less you fear, and the more comfortable you will be in dispelling their fears and conveying a sense of truth and integrity.

Insist on sterile medical and tattoo equipment. Hepatitis B can live for several days on hard surfaces, including improperly-sterilized and re-used syringes and other medical devices. Whether you’re going for a tattoo or to a dentist or doctor’s office, it is your right to insist that all equipment is brand new (ask to see it removed from protective packaging) and properly sterilized. Visit a licensed, professional tattoo parlor and make sure all tattoo equipment has been sterilized and that needles come out of new packages.

Image courtesy of patrisyu at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Infected and pregnant? Protect your baby from hepatitis B.

Make sure your newborn gets the hepatitis B vaccine within 12 hours of birth. Nearly all hepatitis B-infected women will pass the infection onto their children during delivery, but you can stop that infection cycle. In about 90 percent of cases, immediate immunization will prevent infection. In some countries, it may be difficult to get just the single hepatitis B vaccine dose, but if you are able to immunize your baby at birth, you will have protected your child against a potentially dangerous liver disease. If you live in an area where HBIG (hepatitis B antibodies) is available, make sure your newborn is also given a dose of HBIG at birth, this adds another layer of protection against infection.
Get your viral load (HBV DNA) tested early in your pregnancy. Some women with high viral loads (exceeding 200,000 IU/mL or 1 million copies/mL) are at high risk of infecting their newborns, even if the baby receives the first vaccine dose within 12 hours of birth. Ask your doctor to test your viral load, if it’s high, medical guidelines recommend treatment with the antiviral tenofovir during the last three months of your pregnancy to lower your viral load. If you doctor doesn’t test your viral load, be assertive and ask for the test, especially if you are HBeAg positive.
Breastfeeding is OK, even if you have hepatitis B. If you’re infected with hepatitis B, you can safely breastfeed your baby, as long as the baby was vaccinated against hepatitis B at birth.

Your children infected? Don’t wait to start talking to them about hepatitis B. You need to start talking to them about germs and how to keep themselves and others safe when they’re young. (Listen to Jin’s Story #justB You about growing up with hepatitis B.) This conversation will be one of the hardest discussions you will ever have with your child, and you’ll be talking about it often in the years ahead, but you can do it! Start explaining HBV by reading the Hepatitis Victoria “Hep B Hero” book for children two to six years of age.

To hear how other mothers handled talking about hepatitis B with their children, visit our Storytelling page and click on Maureen’s Story #justB Brave and Maureen K’s Story #just B Assertive to hear how these mothers navigated issues of disclosure and stigma with their daughters. Hepatitis Victoria recently launched their “Little Hep B Hero” book, an engaging story teaching children 6-12 year olds about hepatitis B.

Talk to your children about sex and safe sex practices. It’s critical to educate young people about sexual health and STIs. If we want our sons and daughters to feel empowered to take care of their sexual health, we have to change the culture that dictates the way we talk – or don’t talk – about sex. That means removing denial, uncertainty and shame so we have better conversations about sexual health, sexual assault prevention and STIs. It’s also important to encourage our children to have frank sexual health discussions with one another.

Take care of your health, get monitored regularly: It is important to get your hepatitis B monitored regularly – at least every year and more often if you have liver damage. Women living with hepatitis B tend to have lower rates of liver damage than men because estrogen appears to help protect the liver. But even if we lead a healthy lifestyle and avoid alcohol and cigarettes, as we age our immune system weakens and our viral load (HBV DNA) can start to rise. There is no cure yet for hepatitis B, but there are effective drugs that lower viral load and reduce the risk of liver damage.

Be happy. A mother or woman who is well rested, enjoys a healthy diet, gets plenty of exercise, has good relationships with friends and family members and knows how to ask for help when she needs it, is far better equipped to be happy and be the best mother she can be. It isn’t selfish to take care of yourself. Tough times happen, and sometimes a friend or family member may need us, and we will need to be strong during difficult times. If we take care of ourselves and ask for help, in the long run happiness will prevail. For a profile in joy and courage while fighting hepatitis B in her family, watch Renseley’s Story #justB Strong.

Hepatitis B Prevention, Living with Hepatitis B

Valentine’s Day Advice for Those Looking for Love While Living with Hepatitis B

February 14, 2017 hepbtalk 15 Comments

Image courtesy of photostock at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

By Christine Kukka

Valentine’s Day celebrates love and romance, but when you have hepatitis B, you may fear dating could lead to rejection and heartbreak.

Alright, so you had a few unhappy dating experiences because of hepatitis B … believe me, you’re better off without those people. If hepatitis B hadn’t ended the relationship, it would have been some other issue.

Here are two pieces of valuable advice for those looking for love while living with hepatitis B.

A leader of the Hepatitis B Information and Support email list recently offered this sage counsel to members who feared they would never date, marry or have children because of their hepatitis B.

“As the list mom and a divorced woman who has been dating for the last eight years, I have personal experience with this topic. I have to remind you, having chronic hepatitis B does NOT have to create a barrier to dating. If anything, it can help you determine who is a good partner and will possibly be there for you in the long-term.

Image courtesy of Graphics Mouse at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

“Also, and this is the biggie, there is a VACCINE for hepatitis B. If you meet someone you want to have an intimate relationship with, they can be vaccinated (some already are!)

“There is no reason to feel as if you are inferior or less deserving of love because of your hepatitis B. We all want and need acceptance. The only barrier is what you have built in your mind.

“Personally, I have been in three long-term relationships since my divorce. I am currently in a loving relationship with a man who cares about me deeply and has no issues with my hepatitis B.

“A word of wisdom from a friend has stuck with me. If someone loves you, they will care about YOUR heath, and make room for ways to keep you in their life.

“Don’t wall yourself off from the experiences of meeting new people and potential love and partnership with another soul. Life is too short to be afraid of getting hurt. You ‘will’ get hurt, and you WILL get back up to live another day and love again. The risk of rejection is worth the reward.

Disclose, before it’s too late.

When you disclose your hepatitis B status before sex – even if it’s safe sex with a condom – we don’t jeopardize our partner’s health or their trust in us. Talking about hepatitis B helps reduce the stigma surrounding this infection and may even prompt the person to get vaccinated.

So how do we tell a potential partner that we have hepatitis B? Calmly and carefully. Here is one way to initiate disclosure: “Before we become intimate, we need to talk about STIs and contraception. The reason I’m bringing this up is that I have hepatitis B. You need to know that, and we need to decide how to protect ourselves… ”

Do some research. Having a thorough understanding about hepatitis B can make it easier for you to explain it to a potential partner. The more you know, the less you fear, and the more comfortable you will be in dispelling their fears and conveying a sense of truth and integrity.

Image courtesy of radnatt at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Here are some tips from the American Sexual Health Association for disclosing a sexually-transmitted infection.

Pick a time when both of you will be in reasonably good moods and relaxed for this conversation. Choose a place with few, if any, distractions.
Start out on a positive note (“I’m really happy with our relationship…”). This will put them in a positive mindset, and they may respond more agreeably than if you start out saying something like, “I have some really, really bad news… “
Your delivery can influence their reaction to what you say. If you talk calmly about hepatitis B, they may respond similarly. If you act like it’s the end of the world, they might agree that it is.
Allow a conversation to take place, rather than doing all of the talking yourself.

Disclosure is the right and ethical thing to do. How they respond is out of your control, but their response might just surprise you.

Hepatitis B Prevention

A Valuable Tool Against Chronic Hepatitis B Goes Unused in Many Developing Countries

February 8, 2017 hepbtalk

Image courtesy of tuelekza at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

By Christine Kukka

A critical tool that stops the spread of nearly half of all new chronic hepatitis B infections is still unavailable in many developing countries – the hepatitis B vaccine birth dose.

When the hepatitis B vaccine is immediately administered to a baby born to a hepatitis B-infected mother, it stops the terrible spread of hepatitis B to a new generation.

But this vaccine remains unavailable and financially out-of-reach for many parents in rural areas of Africa, Asia and other regions.

“In Ghana, even if parents know where to find the vaccine, the cost sometimes deters them from accessing it,” said Theobald Owusu-Ansah of the Hepatitis B Foundation of Ghana. “And when midwives help mothers deliver their babies in their homes, they do not have the vaccine with them because it must be refrigerated.”

While a global childhood immunization program, sponsored by the global vaccine alliance GAVI, has saved millions of lives, the hepatitis B birth dose remains a critical, missing piece of its otherwise successful global immunization strategy.

Image courtesy of africa at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

To effectively prevent mother-to-child (perinatal) transmission of hepatitis B, the single-dose hepatitis B vaccine must be administered within 12 to 24* hours of birth. In about 90 percent of cases, this vaccine effectively prevents infection, unless the mother’s viral load is extremely high.**

Today, GAVI funds and promotes the pentavalent vaccine, which prevents five diseases including hepatitis B, for nearly all children in developing countries. But here’s the catch, the earliest the first dose of the pentavalent vaccine can be administered is six weeks of age because it contains the diphtheria vaccine. This is far too late to prevent perinatal hepatitis B infection.

GAVI’s pentavalent vaccine makes economic and medical sense. One vaccine that prevents several diseases lowers manufacturing and shipping costs and requires fewer injections. Indeed, widespread immunization with GAVI’s pentavalent vaccine in 73 developing countries has prevented 7 million deaths, but it doesn’t prevent chronic hepatitis B acquired at birth.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has made eradication of hepatitis B by 2030 a major goal, but it is unattainable unless perinatal infection is prevented.

Without GAVI’s financing or promotion of the hepatitis B birth dose, many developing countries have done little to promote the birth dose, despite their high rates of hepatitis B. According to the WHO, in 2015, 8.4 million babies were born in African countries that did not provide the birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine.

In addition to a lack of political will on the part of GAVI and these countries, there are other barriers to distributing the hepatitis B birth vaccine. As Owusu-Ansah explained, about one-third of births in his native Ghana and about 45 percent of all births in Africa take place without a healthcare worker or midwife present.

Volunteers from the Rann India Foundation teach villagers about hepatitis B testing and prevention in India.

Suren Surender, founder and president of the Rann Bhoomi Foundation, which educates rural villagers in India about hepatitis B prevention, added that even when healthcare workers are present at childbirths, “there is a lack of knowledge about birth dose administration and there is also a lack of community awareness about the benefits of getting the birth dose.”

Having a global leader like GAVI lend financial and strategic support for the hepatitis B birth vaccine would go far to chip away at these high perinatal infection rates in rural regions. In 2013, GAVI and the global vaccine alliance explored funding the hepatitis B birth dose as part of its Vaccine Investment Strategy (VIS), but officials decided not to fund it.

According to a GAVI spokeswoman, the key deterrent was implementation — getting the refrigerated vaccine birth dose to rural areas within hours of a child’s birth – rather than cost.

“Many births in GAVI-supported countries do occur outside health facilities,” she noted. “Indeed, coverage of hepatitis B birth dose in many countries delivering this intervention is low. Ultimately, the Vaccine Investment Strategy analysis and consultations recommended that (GAVI) should focus its limited resources on other high-impact vaccines at the time.”

However, research suggests the hepatitis B vaccine may be effective for several days or weeks in warm climates without refrigeration, which could increase their use in rural regions if there was more financial and political support.

In 2018, GAVI will reconsider potential support for the hepatitis B birth dose when it develops a new Vaccine Investment Strategy, with a decision expected in late 2018.

GAVI’s support for the birth vaccine is needed immediately. Only GAVI has the resources and political clout to help countries realign their immunization policies to allow the next generation of children born to hepatitis B-infected parents to live without liver disease.

*North American medical guidelines recommend the first hepatitis B vaccine dose be administered within 12 hours of birth, while WHO recommends the vaccine be given within 24 hours of birth.

**The addition of a dose of HBIG (hepatitis B antibodies) along with the vaccine raises the prevention rate a few percentage points. However, the vaccine alone is highly effective.

Hepatitis B Advocacy, Hepatitis B Prevention

Facing the Threat of Hepatitis B Following Sexual Coercion or Assault

January 25, 2017 hepbtalk 13 Comments

By Christine Kukka

Around the world, the most common way hepatitis B is spread is through sex — and sometimes it’s not consensual.

In the United States, sexual transmission of hepatitis B accounts for nearly two-thirds of acute or new cases in adults. According to a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report, about one in five women and one in 71 men reported experiencing rape at some point in their lives. And abusers rarely use condoms.

One of the hardest things to talk about is the relationship between how hepatitis B is spread and sexual assault or coercion – defined as anytime a woman, man or child is forced to submit to sex either through rape or assault, or with a partner who refuses to use a condom.

About one in 20 women and men (5.6% and 5.3% respectively) experienced sexual violence, such as sexual coercion or unwanted sexual contact in the 12 months prior to the CDC’s survey; and 13 percent of women and 6 percent of men reported they had experienced sexual coercion at some time in their lives. Among women, most abusers were intimate partners, family members or acquaintances. Among males, most perpetrators were acquaintances.

Research suggests these figures under-estimates the true prevalence of sexual violence around the world, which endangers public health on many levels. There is the mental trauma victims experience and there is the spread of sexually-transmitted infections, such as hepatitis B and HIV.

Hepatitis B is 50- to 100-times more infectious than HIV and can be passed through the exchange of body fluids, such as semen, vaginal fluids and blood. The CDC recommends the following steps to protect against hepatitis B following sexual assault.

When the perpetrator has hepatitis B (is positive for the hepatitis B surface antigen-HBsAg):

If the victim has never been vaccinated, he or she should receive the hepatitis B vaccine series and also receive a dose of HBIG (hepatitis B antibodies).
If the victim has been vaccinated in the past, he or she should immediately get a hepatitis B vaccine dose (called a booster dose.)

When the perpetrator’s hepatitis B status is not known:

If the victim has not been immunized against hepatitis B, he or she should received the hepatitis B vaccine series.
If the victim has already been vaccinated against hepatitis B, no treatment is needed.

In South Africa, for example, women’s inability to control their lives sexually is fueling the HIV epidemic. One study that followed 1,500 pregnant women who were in married or stable relationships found an astonishing HIV infection rate of 38 percent. Many reported having been abused physically and sexually in the recent past, which helps explain why AIDS is now the biggest killer of young women in southern Africa.

Image courtesy of Sira Anamwong at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Sexual assault is not always accompanied by physical violence. A woman may not have the power to require her partner to use a condom without risking physical or verbal abuse, or a person may not tell his or her sexual partner that they have hepatitis B. Coercion can be silent, and fueled by ignorance and low self-esteem.

Here is an email that the Hepatitis B Foundation recently received that illustrates this: “My boyfriend is hepatitis B and C positive, as he was a drug addict. We had unprotected sex often over two to three months. I want to ask, is there any chance of myself being infected?”

Sadly, this woman is at very high risk of infection, especially from hepatitis B. What stopped her from insisting he wear a condom or walking away from a relationship with a man who had little concern for her health and welfare?

Poverty, a lack of choices, resources and education, and a host of other factors stop victims from walking away from their abusers every day around the world.

To protect the health of people around the world, we need to fight in any way we can to stop sexual violence, protect women’s reproductive health, and enable everyone to control their lives.

In southern Africa, researchers have come up with a vaginal ring that contains anti-HIV drugs and discreetly protects a woman from HIV infection, without requiring her to negotiate condom use with an abuser inside or outside her marriage.

But this treats a symptom, not the disease of sexual violence that spreads trauma, fear and diseases such as hepatitis B. However we can, whenever we can, we must work to make a difference.

Hepatitis B Advocacy, Hepatitis B Prevention, Living with Hepatitis B

The Hepatitis B Community Cringes As Vaccine Skeptics Take the Stage in Washington

January 18, 2017 hepbtalk

Image courtesy of Tuomas_Lehtinen at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

By Christine Kukka

In a profound blow to science, public health and the hepatitis B community, President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly asking Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — who believes that vaccines cause autism — to chair a national commission on vaccines.

Countless studies show vaccines are safe and effective and do not cause autism. The hepatitis B vaccine alone has contributed to an 82 percent drop in this deadly liver disease in the U.S. since 1991. Before universal childhood immunizations became available, one in 20 Americans had been infected with hepatitis B. Sadly, that spectacular success has not quieted vaccine skeptics.

It is heart-breaking to hear that an anti-vaccine activist may gain a public forum to promote his scientifically-unfounded opinions. If the hepatitis B vaccine had been available to my daughter and millions of others around the world at birth, there would be fewer people with chronic hepatitis B, fewer deaths from liver disease and cancer and far less anguish, fear and stigma. Vaccines safely and effectively prevent disease, and all of us who have been touched by hepatitis B can attest to their life-saving value.

Let’s review the indisputable scientific facts about vaccines, and why this controversy has resurfaced.

In 1998, the well-respected medical journal Lancet published a paper by researcher Andrew Wakefield and 12 of his colleagues linking a standard measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and its preservative thimerosal to autism. Despite its tiny sample size (just 12 children) and its speculative conclusions, the study was publicized and bolstered the anti-vaccine movement.

The study proved to be a fraud. Editors of the Lancet later retracted the report, and additional investigations into the study found some of children in the study did even have autism. But the damage was done and hepatitis B vaccine makers and others scrambled to remove thimerasol from their vaccines to counter the undocumented claims that it posed a threat to children. A thimerasol-free, hepatitis B vaccine became available in late 1999.

Image courtesy of meepoohfoto at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

But parents in the U.S. increasingly chose not to vaccinate their children, even after the disappearance of thimerasol. They didn’t like all the shots their babies were given, and vaccines became victims of their own success. They were so effective that parents began to believe their children were no longer at risk of these vaccine-preventable diseases and did not need immunization.

Before the measles vaccine became available, there were 500,000 cases of measles annually in the U.S. and 500 deaths. By 2000, due to universal immunization, measles had been eradicated. Then the anti-vaccine movement took hold and more and more parents chose not to vaccinate their children. In 2014, the U.S. experienced 667 cases of measles in 27 states, including an outbreak at Disneyland. This is what happens when parents stop vaccinating their children.

What is so piercing and terrible is that millions of us would be free of hepatitis B if only we had been vaccinated at birth or during childhood.

To arouse suspicion about vaccines that save millions of people every day is unforgivable. My daughter has hepatitis B today because this vaccine was not available when she was born. To plant false seeds of doubt about a life-saving vaccine undermines all we have worked for in our effort to eradicate hepatitis B in the next 30 years.

“A conspiracy theory such as the one about the autism vaccine is like an untreated wound,” wrote Michael Specter recently in The New Yorker. “It has festered for years, and yesterday Trump and Kennedy guaranteed that it can only deepen—causing tremendous destruction and needless pain.”

For factual information about vaccine safety, schedules, and why babies are given so many vaccines, click here.

Hepatitis B Advocacy, Hepatitis B Prevention, Hepatitis B Treatment

Kate Moraras: Making Sure Federal Policies Work to Eliminate Hepatitis B Locally

December 14, 2016 hepbtalk 2 Comments

Kate Moraras, Hepatitis B Foundation senior program director and Hep B United director.

By Christine Kukka

It’s Kate Moraras’ job to make sure federal programs crafted in the elite halls and federal agencies of Capitol Hill are what’s really needed to eliminate hepatitis B in Asian-American, African and other at-risk communities across the country.

Simply put, her goal is to eradicate, “the most staggering health disparity facing immigrant communities.”

The people on whose behalf Moraras works are among the most vulnerable and powerless in the country. They include Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) and African immigrants who were infected at birth or by contaminated syringes or medical tools in their countries of origin.

As senior program director at the Hepatitis B Foundation and director of the Hep B United national coalition for the past three years, Moraras has worked with federal officials and dozens of hepatitis community advocates across the country to align federal policy with the need of diverse, hard-to-reach communities.

“I have always been drawn to systems-level change and I saw public health policy as a key area where there are opportunities to make an impact,” she explained. She was energized by the prospect of finding solutions that would improve healthcare at the individual and community level, and she obtained her master in public health at George Washington University.

After graduation, Moraras learned about hepatitis B when she was working on AAPI health disparities in the federal government. “Then, my uncle found out he had chronic hepatitis B when he tried to donate blood,” she recalled. Suddenly, what had been a matter of political injustice became a personal cause and she began working at the foundation.

Moraras knows federal policies don’t succeed unless they make a difference on the streets of America. “Grassroots and culturally-focused organizations are pivotal to eradicating hepatitis B because they know their communities and how they are at risk of hepatitis B,” she explained.

Preventing and treating hepatitis B in immigrant communities requires cultural nuance. Each community has its own language, cultural practices and healthcare beliefs. Many lack insurance coverage and when they finally reach a clinic or doctor’s office, the cultural disconnect creates an insurmountable barrier to learning about this complex disease.

This is why having local organizations whose staff know the culture, speak the language and can bridge the glaring healthcare gap that now stops people from getting vaccinated and treated for hepatitis B is key. “Their communities trust them, which is so critical when it comes to navigating healthcare and communicating accurate information about hepatitis B, a disease that is stigmatized in many AAPI communities. If we want to eradicate hepatitis B in the U.S., we must partner with local organizations and make sure they have adequate resources to do the job.”

Hep B United and the foundation are working to make sure federal policy helps, rather than hinders, these vital, local initiatives.

“Fortunately, we have had champions within the federal government who have taken the opportunity to lead national efforts to address hepatitis B — for example, former Assistant Secretary for Health Dr. Howard Koh who led the development of the National Viral Hepatitis Action Plan and a White House Initiative tasked with specifically focusing on AAPI communities, with a cross-cutting voice and broad reach,” she said.

“CDC now has a multilingual communications campaign, the Know Hepatitis B campaign, to encourage hepatitis B testing among AAPI communities with educational materials in a variety of Asian languages,” she added. At state and local levels, there have been city councilors and state legislators who have become champions who advocate for funding for effective community programs to increase public awareness.

“What remains challenging is the disconnect between local groups providing direct services to people and federal agencies that are working to make and implement policy at the 30,000-foot level,” she said. “For example, we still do not have a national surveillance system to monitor chronic hepatitis B cases and trends and there remains an overall lack of awareness and attention to hepatitis B at the national level. We must all continue to ask for real investment by the federal government to combat hepatitis B.

“We need to build a national hepatitis B grassroots movement, which is something that I would like to see happen through my job and Hep B United in the years ahead,” she added. “We have built a strong coalition that continues to expand every year, we have powerful advocates from local communities who have taken on leadership roles in national hepatitis advocacy and I would like to see our movement continue to grow and translate to the millions of individuals we have the potential to reach.”

Hep B United is a national coalition to address and eliminate hepatitis B, a serious liver infection that is the leading cause of liver cancer. An estimated 2 million people in the United States are chronically infected with the hepatitis B virus. Hep B United aims to meet this public health challenge by increasing hepatitis B awareness, testing, vaccination and treatment.

Hepatitis B Prevention, Hepatitis B Treatment, Living with Hepatitis B

Family Getting Together for The Holidays? Time to Talk Hepatitis B and Your Family’s Health History

November 22, 2016 hepbtalk

Image courtesy of Apolonia at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

By Christine Kukka

When we have chronic hepatitis B, knowing our family medical history can give us an inside edge to fight this infection.

Hepatitis B is an infection that often runs in families. Knowing how our parents, grandparents and aunts/uncles responded to this liver disease can give us insider information about our own genetic prospects with hepatitis B.

Experts estimate that more than half of us worldwide became infected at birth. Our mothers may have been infected with hepatitis B. Immunization, which can prevent infection if administered within 12 hours of birth, was not available to us as newborns, nor to our mothers or grandmothers.

So if we suspect or know our parents have or had hepatitis B, it’s important to find out if our aunts and uncles or grandparents were also infected and had signs of liver damage. Did anyone get liver cancer or die from liver-related problems? Or, did our relatives live long lives due to strong genes, healthy lifestyle choices, and avoiding smoking and alcohol?

Knowing how our genetic predecessors handled this infection gives clues about:

How often we should be screened for liver cancer? We should be screened earlier and more often if we have a family history of cancer.
How soon should we start treatment? If our predecessors had liver damage at a young age, perhaps we should start treatment sooner rather than wait and endure long periods of liver damage and high viral loads.
How effective are our family’s genes in fighting this infection? Did many family members with hepatitis B have liver damage or cancer, or did they have relatively long and healthy lives?
What effect did the hepatitis B virus’ strain or genotype play? Depending on the HBV genotype that infects us, we may have different experiences with hepatitis B. We may we develop the hepatitis B “e” antibody earlier if we have certain HBV genotypes. Knowing our relatives’ health history gives us some insight into this.
What effect does gender play? Did women experience liver damage or did it only happen to men? The female hormone estrogen is believed to confer some protection against hepatitis B. It may be that men in your family are at highest risk of liver damage and need more frequent monitoring and earlier treatment.

Image courtesy of jk1991 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

There are other factors besides genes that affect a multi-generational experience of hepatitis B. Did our grandparent who developed liver cancer suffer poor nutrition for extended periods in their country of origin that weakened their immune system? Did the uncle who had cirrhosis also smoke, drink or suffer exposure to chemicals at work? Could a grandparent who died of liver disease eat moldy rice or corn that contained aflatoxin, which severely damages the liver?

Taken together, all of these factors give us clues to medical conditions that may run in our families, and this knowledge isn’t limited to just hepatitis B. By identifying family patterns of medical problems such as diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure or breast cancers, healthcare providers can determine if we and our children are at increased risk of a particular condition.

Because knowing your family’s health history is such a powerful tool, the Surgeon General created a free website to help everyone create a portrait of their family’s health at My Family Health Portrait.

After completing the questions, the website creates a personalized “family health tree” that can be saved to a home computer. From there, families may update the information any time. The tool can be shared with other family members, who can add their health information to the portrait. It’s also important to share this portrait with your doctor.

The Surgeon General has declared Thanksgiving to be National Family Health History Day. But whenever your family gathers for a holiday, ask about their medical history. It just might save your life.

Hepatitis B Diagnosis & Monitoring, Hepatitis B Prevention, Living with Hepatitis B

You’ve Lost the Hepatitis B Surface Antigen, Go Celebrate, But Keep Monitoring

September 27, 2016 hepbtalk 17 Comments

By Christine Kukka

Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

After years of living with “inactive’ chronic hepatitis B—with low viral load and no signs of liver damage–some patients may finally lose the hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and even develop surface antibodies.

This event merits a celebration and a huge sigh of relief, but if you think you will never have to get another blood draw or worry about your liver, think again. We hate to be the bearer of bad news, but hepatitis B really never goes away.

Think herpes, mono, or chicken pox and shingles. Children infected with chickenpox get rid of the infection and the ugly blisters, but very small amounts of the chickenpox (varicella) virus remains in the spinal nerves. As we grow older and our immune systems weaken with age, our bodies aren’t able to suppress the varicella virus any more and it reactivates, causing painful shingles.

The hepatitis B virus (HBV) behaves in the same way. When we lose HBsAg and even develop surface antibodies (anti-HBs), there are still HBV lurking in our livers. When we’re healthy, our immune systems suppress the virus and prevent any reactivation, but old age or another disease or medical condition can weaken our bodies and allow the viral infection to reactivate.

So, even after we clear HBsAg, we need to stay vigilant and continue to get our liver health monitored regularly. Here is what you need to know:

First, what are my chances of ever getting rid of HBsAg and developing the surface antibody? It can happen, especially in older adults after a long period of “inactive” hepatitis B infection.

About 1 to 3 percent of people with chronic hepatitis B lose HBsAg each year, and about half of all people with chronic infections who live up to age 75 will lose HBsAg, depending on the amount of HBV DNA in their blood.

Your chances of losing HBsAg and developing the surface antibody increase if you have a healthy lifestyle and avoid alcohol, cigarettes and obesity (fatty liver). Another report found that people with the hepatitis B strain or genotype C have higher rates of clearing HBsAg over time than those with genotype B.

Image courtesy of taoty at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Once you clear HBsAg, the chance of developing surface antibodies over the next two, five and 10 years are 24 percent, 58 percent and 78 percent respectively, according to a recent report in the September 2016 journal of Epidemiology and Infection.

After I clear HBsAg, how often do I need to get my liver health monitored? According to Dr. Robert Gish, medical director of the Hepatitis B Foundation and professor consultant of gastroenterology and hepatology at Stanford University, once you have cleared HBsAg, 12 months later you need to:

Check all of your liver enzymes and liver function
Get your platelet count and hepatitis B blood tests done, and
Have an ultrasound of your liver and spleen.

These tests become your new “baseline” that your doctor can refer too in the years ahead while monitoring your liver health.

Your baseline ultrasound should examine your liver and measure its portal vein (it should be under 12 mm) and spleen (it should be under 12 cm) to make sure it’s normal with no signs of cirrhosis or portal hypertension.

If you had cirrhosis before you cleared HBsAg: You need to be surveyed for liver cancer (with an ultrasound, alpha fetoprotein (AFP) blood test and a Des-gamma-carboxy prothrombin (DCP) test) every six months for at least five years, because cirrhosis puts you at high risk of liver cancer. Once an ultrasound finds no evidence of cirrhosis and all other tests are normal, including the cancer tests, then the testing can become less frequent and your doctor can prescribe a new monitoring schedule.

If you’ve had elevated liver enzymes (called ALT or SGPT) in the past, (higher than 19 in women and 30 in men), you need to continue to get tested every six months until you’ve had two consecutive healthy ALT readings. If your ALT remains elevated, make sure you are not drinking alcohol and do not have fatty liver disease. Talk to your doctor about a new monitoring schedule.

Tell all of your current and future doctors you’ve had hepatitis B, and beware of immune-suppressing drugs used to treat various cancers and rheumatoid arthritis. Our immune systems, which are working to keep the residual HBV in our bodies in check, can also take a hit from medications that deliberately suppress our immune systems in order to fight cancer, psoriasis or rheumatoid arthritis.

According to medical guidelines, all oncologists and other specialists who use these powerful drugs are supposed to test all their patients for hepatitis B and carefully monitor anyone who had hepatitis B in the past, which is indicated by a positive test for the hepatitis B core antibody (anti-HBc).

Even if you’ve cleared HBsAg, doctors may pre-emptively treat you with antivirals during and after your treatment for cancer, immune disorders such as arthritis or psoriasis, and hepatitis C and monitor your HBsAg and viral load regularly to make sure your hepatitis B does not reactivate.

These screening guidelines exist, but no one is perfect and your oncologist may not know you’ve been infected, may forget to screen you for hepatitis B, or may not understand the testing. So, tell everyone if you have an active or resolved hepatitis B infection. The last thing you want is to be battling both cancer and a reactivated hepatitis B infection simultaneously.

While hepatitis B never really goes away, once you clear HBsAg your risk of liver damage and liver cancer diminish tremendously. It’s worth a celebration, but you need to continue to be monitored as you age.

Hepatitis B Prevention, Living with Hepatitis B

How Much Do You Really Know About Sex and Hepatitis B? Take This Quiz and Find Out

September 21, 2016 hepbtalk 13 Comments

Image courtesy of Vichaya Kiatying-Angsulee at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

By Christine Kukka

It’s Sexual Health Awareness month and a great time to test your knowledge about how hepatitis B is — and isn’t — spread sexually.

We know hepatitis B is easily transmitted through sex. It’s a resilient virus, can live for up to a week on a dry surface and it’s 50- to 100-times more infectious than HIV. In fact, sexual contact is the most common way hepatitis B is spread in the United States. So let’s see how much you know:

I’m in my 20s and can safely assume everyone has been vaccinated against hepatitis B, so I don’t have to disclose my infection. True or False?

False. New hepatitis B cases have indeed been steadily declining since the vaccine was introduced in the 1980s, but not everyone has been vaccinated. Here’s proof. As a result of the heroin epidemic sweeping through rural America, new hepatitis B infections have risen for the first time in decades among 20- and 30-year-olds who were not lucky enough to be immunized during childhood.

Oral sex doesn’t transmit hepatitis B. True or False?

It’s complicated. There are no confirmed reports of hepatitis B infection resulting from oral sex, but there’s still a risk for infection. If you have a high viral load (HBV DNA), you may still be putting partners at risk of infection if they have bleeding gums, mouth sores, or anything that increases the likelihood of infectious fluids entering their bodies. Bottom line, oral sex has a lower risk of spreading hepatitis B than other sexual practices, but some risk remains. And don’t forget, other sexually-transmitted infections such as chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis are spread through oral sex. Using a condom or dental dam reduces infection risk.

An uninfected woman is at higher risk of catching hepatitis B from an infected male partner, than an uninfected man who has sex with an infected woman. True or False?

True. It’s not gender but sexual activity that usually defines the infection risk, but in this case an uninfected woman is at very high risk of infection if she has unprotected sex and is on the receiving end of hepatitis B-infected semen.

I’m positive for the hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), but my viral load is undetectable. I don’t have to worry about disclosing or spreading hepatitis B. True or False?

False. As long as you test positive for the surface antigen, you still have the hepatitis B virus in your blood and body fluids. Yes, the risk is lower because you’re HBV DNA-undetectable, but you still need to practice safe sex and disclose your hepatitis B to your prospective sexual partners.

Anal sex is more effective at transmitting hepatitis B than vaginal sex. True or False?

True. Any sexual activity that might cause abrasions, cuts, or other trauma is especially risky. To minimize risk, experts recommend use of a condom.

Kissing can transmit hepatitis B. True or False?

False. Spreading hepatitis B through kissing is highly unlikely, however, deep kissing that involves the exchange of large amounts of saliva might result in infection if there are cuts or abrasions in the mouth of the infected person, especially if they have a high viral load.

Blood has more hepatitis B virus in it than semen or vaginal fluids. True or False?

True. Blood has the highest volume of virus. Semen and vaginal fluids have intermediate levels, and urine and feces have the lowest level.

Hepatitis B Advocacy, Hepatitis B Prevention, Living with Hepatitis B

Hepatitis B Foundation: Answering Questions and Dispelling Fears One Call or Email at a Time

September 14, 2016 hepbtalk 77 Comments

Maureen Kamischke, Hepatitis B Foundation's social media and outreach manager. — Maureen Kamischke, Hepatitis B Foundation’s social media and outreach manager.

Hepatitis B is a complex infection, it can impact our health, lifestyle choices and threaten relationships. Sometimes, we need to ask for help.

One of the most personal and valuable services the Hepatitis B Foundation provides is answering individuals’ emails and phone calls about hepatitis B. These queries, which can come from all over the world, often involve discrimination, disclosure and how to interpret lab tests that baffle inexperienced doctors and nurses.

One of the people at the foundation who answers these emails and calls is Maureen Kamischke, the foundation’s social media and outreach manager. Kamischke, whose daughter had hepatitis B, knows first-hand the difficulty of finding healthcare providers with expertise in hepatitis B treatment. She has grappled with decisions about disclosing her child’s infection at school and to friends. Today, she continues to advise her daughter (now an adult) about her liver health, and she also answers the dozens of emails and calls that reach the foundation each week.

Maureen Kamischke's daughter Maren. — Maureen Kamischke’s daughter Maren.

Today, guided by decades of personal and professional hepatitis B experience, Kamischke helps others navigate the challenging world of hepatitis B. “My goals are to disseminate accurate information, provide hope and information that will empower people living with hepatitis B to make simple lifestyle changes that will help them feel like they have some control over their lives,” she explained. “I understand that the disease will shape them, but I want them to understand it should not define or limit them. “ Continue reading "Hepatitis B Foundation: Answering Questions and Dispelling Fears One Call or Email at a Time" →

Baruch S. Blumberg Institute