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Partner Highlight: Philadelphia Department of Public Health’s Viral Hepatitis Program Makes Great Strides Towards Elimination!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Hepatitis Awareness Month! Continue reading to get to know the Viral Hepatitis Program at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health (PDPH)!  

The Viral Hepatitis Program at PDPH strives to support Philadelphia residents and service providers in several ways, including preventing viral hepatitis infection through education, screening, and vaccination; improving and providing access to affordable treatment; and supporting provider efforts to provide comprehensive viral hepatitis care/treatment. There are many tools that exist to prevent and treat viral hepatitis infections, and even cure them in the case of hepatitis C. Access to these services, however, is not readily available for everyone. The Viral Hepatitis Program aims to increase access and reduce inequities in care through collaborations and programming, in hopes of achieving the 2030 goal of hepatitis B and hepatitis C elimination.  

The Viral Hepatitis Program performs a number of exciting projects to achieve this work! 

 

 

 

Patient Engagement 

Many members of the Viral Hepatitis Program spend their days interacting with patients over the phone. Public health surveillance allows the program to work with hepatitis B and hepatitis C patients to provide individualized support. This outreach provides patients with viral hepatitis education, linkage-to-care, and care navigation along with access to harm reduction materials, support for substance use disorder care, and additional resources. 

 

 

 

 

 

Above: Viral Hepatitis team member, Cassandra Lamadieu, provides viral hepatitis educational materials to community members in attendance at the 2023 Philadelphia Block Captain Rally. 

 

Philly InSync: Provider Engagement  

Through collaborations within PDPH and with a partner organization, the Philly InSync Project provides education and technical assistance to healthcare providers and facilities to integrate harm reduction, substance use disorder care, and care for infectious diseases related to drug use. Philly InSync works with multiple sites to provide testing, care, and treatment of hepatitis B, hepatitis C and other infectious disease care while also providing technical assistance including staff trainings, data improvement strategies, and reducing barriers to care. A technical advisory committee of Philadelphia providers meets quarterly to provide enhanced technical assistance to these sites while learning how to improve the care they provide as well. The program elevates conversations among Philadelphia providers and creates a collaborative community to learn, listen, and share experiences, challenges, and solutions that involve anything from clinical experiences to insurance barriers.   

Pharmacy Project: Increasing Hepatitis A & B Vaccination 

Another project to increase viral hepatitis prevention efforts is the Pharmacy Project, which is focused on improving pharmacy-based vaccination for hepatitis A & B. Annually, the Viral Hepatitis Program conducts a survey of pharmacies in Philadelphia to collect information about hepatitis A and B vaccination services. The survey results are shared with the community on a map that allows patients and providers to find vaccinating pharmacies. The data collected is also used to identify barriers to vaccine access, to inform additional activities to support patients, providers, and pharmacists. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Social Media 

To engage the community and to promote collaboration, the program runs several social media accounts and provides up-to-date information and resources. To access information on vaccine events, mobile health clinics, and many other health services follow along at the links below! Make sure to follow along during the month of May for some special Hepatitis Awareness Month content!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Philadelphia Hepatitis B & Hepatitis C Elimination Plan 

The Viral Hepatitis Program and local partners and community members have worked together to create a plan for the elimination of hepatitis B and hepatitis C in Philadelphia. To see information on this process visit: Philadelphia Hepatitis B & Hepatitis C Elimination Plan Community Engagement Executive Summary. Striving to eliminate the impact of these infections from Philadelphia is not a new effort, as a committed community of viral hepatitis eliminators has been hard at work for quite some time. Hep B United – Philadelphia and The Hepatitis C Allies of Philadelphia (HepCAP) are the two local coalitions made up of individuals and organizations committed to viral hepatitis elimination. While much has been accomplished, PDPH and the local community of eliminators are continuing the work to provide services to educate, prevent, vaccinate, test, link-to-care, and treat these two diseases in Philadelphia. The Plan will be released in 2023. 

 

To learn more about viral hepatitis or for any questions… 

Websites: Phillyhepatitis.org & Hepcap.org 

Email: hep-ddc@phila.gov 

To order educational materials: bit.ly/hepeducationalmaterials  

Create, Submit, & Win The B A Hero PSA Video Contest! Help Raise HBV Awareness!

Hep B Free Philadelphia “B A Hero” PSA Video Contest 2012

Channel your creativity and skills for a good cause and win prizes!

Raise HBV awareness!

 

Hep B Free Philadelphia and Hepatitis B Foundation invite you to create a 30-second Public Service Announcement (PSA) to raise awareness about hepatitis B. Finalists will receive prize money and the winner’s PSA will be shown at Hep B Free Philadelphia’s annual media event as well as ** drum rolls** the 2012 Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival! Thousands will get to see your creative brainchild!

Hepatitis B is a serious infection that affects about 2 million people in the United States. About 1 in 10 Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are chronically infected—with African immigrants approaching a similar ratio as well. About 1 in 4 of the chronically infected individuals will die of liver cancer or cirrhosis.

Many infected individuals are not aware of their status because hepatitis B doesn’t usually produce symptoms for decades, and when the symptoms start showing it is often too late for treatment—it is a silent killer!

Help us raise awareness by entering the “B A Hero” PSA Video Contest and submitting a PSA made by you! Videos should highlight hepatitis B and include the “B A Hero” theme.

5 Easy Steps:

1. Make a 30-second video to raise awareness and B a hero
2. Check the fact sheet below to make sure all your HBV information is correct
3. Submit the PSA through Facebook
4. Get all your friends to vote for your PSA
5. Win prizes and B famous!

Submission deadlines:

Round 1 – February 17

Round 2 – March 16

Round 3 – April 13

Register NOW at Hep B Free Philadelphia’s Facebook Page!!

Submissions can also be emailed toPSAContest@hepb.org.

For the official contest guidelines, please click here

For the hepatitis B fact sheet, please click here

Questions? Please contact Hep B Free Philadelphia program manager Daniel Chen at Daniel.chen@hepb.org

Three finalists will win $100 each!

One Grand Prize winner will win an additional $150
AND have their video shown at the 2012 Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival!

B a hero! Make a PSA Video and raise HBV awareness!

There are some excellent HBV PSA videos on YouTube. Here’s an example of a great one, but feel free to visit Hep B Free Philadelphia’s Facebook Page and scroll down for more examples!

Join the Fun! We’d Love Your Help!

There’s a contest going on and we’d love your help! Facebook is having a little competition to see who can get the most “likes” on their facebook page.  The Hepatitis B Foundation wants to help jump-start Hep B Free Philadelphia’s Facebook page, and help them win “facebook Ad cash” in the process.  What will Hep B Free Philly do with those Facebook  Ad dollars? Well, Hep B Free Philly will use those Ad dollars to possibly raise donations, but perhaps more importantly, it’s another way to use one of our favorite social media channels to help promote hepatitis B awareness.

Here’s what you need to do….

  • Visit Hep B Free Philadelphia’s Facebook page and like their page. The like button is at the top of the page.
  • That’s it!  If you really want to help Hep B Free Philly win, ask your friends or family to “like” the page.  It’s that simple!
  • Use the little “Facebook share button” at the top of this blog to share it with your facebook friends!
  • This little competition ends March 31, 2012, so please don’t delay!

While you’re there, feel free to check out the page and see what Hep B Free Philadelphia’s community-owned public health campaign is doing in Philadelphia to educate and raise public awareness, along with increasing testing and vaccination in the fight against hepatitis B and liver cancer.  You can also check out Hep B Free Philly’s website! They’ve got a lot of great activities going on!

Finally, the Hepatitis B Foundation also joined the competition. At this time our facebook page has 684 “likes” of our page! We’d like to win some of those free Facebook Ad dollars and see how we can use them to  raise HBV global awareness.  So, if you haven’t already, be sure to “like” HBF’s Facebook page!

Thanks!