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  • Iron Overload Affects More Than the Irish, People with Hepatitis B-Related Liver Damage Need to Be Tested

    Image courtesy of zole4 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net. By Christine Kukka Iron is crucial to our health, but too much iron – called iron overload – can put us at risk of liver damage and other health problems, especially if we have hepatitis B-related liver disease and/or we’re Irish. Irish and hepatitis B are not normally two words you hear in the same sentence, but both populations may need to be careful about how much iron they eat. A liver inflamed or damaged by a chronic hepatitis B infection or other causes doesn’t process or store liver effectively and the excess iron accelerates liver damage and causes a host of other medical problems. If you’re Irish or of northern European ancestry, one in eight of you have a genetic predisposition for hereditary hemochromatosis (HH) – commonly called the Celtic Curse -- that occurs when the body doesn’t process or store iron properly, leading to a four-fold increase in iron absorption. If you’re Irish and have chronic hepatitis B, you may want to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with a trip to your doctor for a simple blood test for ferritin (iron) and transferrin saturation. If they’re elevated, your doctor may order a gene test to see if you have HH. The relationship between iron overload and hepatitis B has been problematic, or as researchers like to say, “not well defined.” Our liver is the body’s major storage organ for iron. About one-third of the iron we consume is stored in liver cells, which play a major role in recycling iron and synthesizing transferrin (the main transporting protein) and ferritin (the major storage protein) from iron. Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net. When our livers are damaged or inflamed from hepatitis B, the Celtic Curse, fatty liver or alcohol, they don’t synthesize iron well, leading to excessive iron deposits in the liver which leads to more liver damage, including inflammation, fibrosis and even liver cancer.  In some hepatitis C patients,

    http://www.hepb.org/blog/iron-overload-affects-irish-people-hepatitis-b-related-liver-damage-need-tested/
  • Doctors Get a New Tool to Improve Hepatitis B Treatment and Monitoring

    Photo courtesy of CDC. By Christine Kukka A recently-approved test now allows doctors to measure exactly how much hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) people with chronic hepatitis B have in their blood; so why should patients get this test and how will it help the millions of people around the world infected with hepatitis B? According to experts, including the Hepatitis B Foundation’s Medical Director Robert Gish, knowing a patient’s HBsAg levels gives doctors: A better understanding of what stage of hepatitis B a patient is in; A more accurate assessment of a patient’s liver cancer risk; and Essential information to judge if it’s time to start or stop treatment. And in the future, this test may be critical to finding a cure. Don’t labs already test for HBsAg? HBsAg, the protein that makes up the surface of the virus, is what labs look for in a blood sample to determine if a person is currently infected with hepatitis B. Historically, labs determined only if HBsAg was present or not, which is why patients either tested positive or negative for HBsAg. Recently, countries outside the U.S. began measuring HBsAg quantities in blood samples and late last year became available in the U.S. as a federally-approved (CLIA) lab test from Quest Diagnostics. Hepatitis B Foundation President Timothy Block “The strange thing about HBsAg, is that each hepatitis B virus requires only about 100 HBsAg molecules to provide its envelope protein, but the virus produces about 100- to 1 million-times more HBsAg than is needed, leaving millions of HBsAg circulating in the bloodstream,” explained Timothy Block, president of the Hepatitis B Foundation and the Baruch S. Blumberg Institute, the foundation’s research arm. That over-abundance of HBsAg is why people continue to test positive for HBsAg even if they have an undetectable viral load (HBV DNA). Why is there so much HBsAg? Researchers, including Block, suspect that in addition to covering the virus’ surface,

    http://www.hepb.org/blog/doctors-get-new-tool-improve-hepatitis-b-treatment-monitoring/
  • Ten Things You Should Know About Hepatitis B and Do in 2017

    Image courtesy of krishna arts at FreeDigitalPhotos.net By Christine Kukka It's 2017, and experts around the world continue to study the complex life cycle of the hepatitis B virus in order to find a chink in its armor that will lead to a cure. In 2016, there were successes and disappointments in the research and healthcare arena. Here is what you need to know about hepatitis B in 2017. If you're taking tenofovir, ask your doctor about TAF if you’re experiencing kidney problems or bone loss, especially if you're an older woman. If you’re taking the antiviral tenofovir (Viread) long-term, ask your doctor about replacing it with TAF (Vemlidy). TAF is a reformulated version of tenofovir that delivers the antiviral more effectively to liver cells at a lower dose.  Currently, doctors prescribe either tenofovir or entecavir for liver damage. Entecavir does not cause bone loss, but it doesn't work in people who have developed drug resistance to lamivudine or adefovir. For them, tenofovir is the only option, but it can cause bone loss and kidney problems when used long-term. With the U.S. Food and Drug's recent approval of TAF, consumers can now get tenofovir’s robust antiviral activity at a lower dose. Because it’s brand new, your provider may not know about it, so ask about it to see if it would be better for you. Was medical or recreational marijuana just approved in your state? Exercise caution. Many in the hepatitis C community have used medically-prescribed marijuana to ease side effects from interferon for years, so many assume it's also safe for people with hepatitis B. Unfortunately, there are no studies that conclusively prove its safety. One study  that monitored liver fibrosis in 700 people coinfected with HIV and hepatitis C found, “…no evidence for an association between cannabis (marijuana) smoking and significant liver fibrosis progression in HIV/HCV coinfection." But another study  concluded: “Cell culture and animal model studies support

    http://www.hepb.org/blog/ten-things-know-hepatitis-b-2017/
  • Got Hep B and Worried About the Trump Effect on Your Obamacare? Experts Say No Changes Expected Before 2018

    Image courtesy of num_skyman at FreeDigitalPhotos.net. By Christine Kukka It is time to sign up, re-enroll or change your health insurance plan in the Affordable Care Act’s Health Insurance Marketplace, also known as Obamacare. Millions of Americans – many of them with pre-existing medical conditions such as hepatitis B -- get their much-needed health insurance through this plan. But President-elect Donald Trump has promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which funds the program, and now Republicans will have control of the House and Senate. What should we, who require health insurance to cover our doctor visits, lab tests and costly antiviral treatment to keep our livers healthy, do? Should we sign up for 2017? YES, experts say emphatically. Even if Congress passes legislation to repeal parts of the ACA and Trump signs it into law, these changes are unlikely to go into effect before 2019 because Congress will need time to design a replacement plan and the IRS will need time to create a new tax system to go along with whatever replaces the ACA. So for 2017, if you still need health insurance coverage and the subsidies including premium subsidies and cost-sharing subsidies, they will still available. They will probably change starting in 2018, but for 2017 you can still sign up and receive coverage now. To date, healthcare policy experts predict Republicans will not repeal the program because of the huge number of Americans that use it. And what remains popular about the program is that it requires insurers to take all applicants regardless of their medical condition, which is vital for us with chronic hepatitis B. Image courtesy of graur razvan ionut at FreeDigitalPhotos.net. Right now, the marketplace can only ask our age and whether we smoke when providing coverage. It cannot ask about our hepatitis B or what drugs we take, nor can it impose any caps on our medical expenses. If and when the Trump-Congress changes the program, it can only do so by

    http://www.hepb.org/blog/got-hep-b-worried-trump-effect-obamacare-plan-experts-say-changes-unlikely-2018/
  • Why Raised Voices, Phone Calls and Letter Writing Are Critical to Eradicate Hepatitis B

    By Christine Kukka Getting the medical care we need requires advocacy, because in the U.S. the quality of our healthcare--and even how long we live--depends on our income, ethnicity, gender and where we live. That is especially true when we live with hepatitis B. Many affected by hepatitis B are not endowed with money, privilege or political power. Most of us are immigrants and people of African and Asian descent. This infection illuminates our country's racial divides in healthcare. Asian-Americans, for example, have liver cancer rates 13-times higher than white Americans because they were never tested for hepatitis B, diagnosed or treated until it was too late. Many of us are gay or injecting drug users. We are often uninsured or under-insured, which leaves us unable to pay for testing or treatment. Our doctors, who often work in healthcare systems focused more on the bottom line than patient care, see too many patients in too little time. They may not know to screen us for hepatitis B, or monitor us properly and refer us for treatment when the infection damages our livers. Despite good intentions, we live with a broken healthcare system and like any political system it requires the actions of patients, voters and advocacy organizations to improve. Participants Perform a B A Hero Chant The Hepatitis B Foundation and national coalitions including Hep B United are working within the political system to make healthcare more equitable and accountable.  They're fighting to get more funding so the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute of Health have more resources to eradicate hepatitis B. Recently, these advocates scored a victory.Earlier this year, they and others asked the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to expand Medicare coverage to pay for hepatitis B testing in at-risk seniors and disabled people. Being of Asian or African descent, an immigrant, gay, having had numerous sexual partners or a history of

    http://www.hepb.org/blog/raised-voices-phone-calls-letter-writing-critical-eradicate-hepatitis-b/
  • Blogs

    Living with hepatitis B and Diabetes Liver Cancer Screening Q&A with Dr. Amit Singal Want to Avoid Liver Cancer? There Are Things You Can Control Your Doctor Not Screening You for Liver Cancer? Time for a Talk Inexpensive Test Could Reveal Liver Cancer Risk The Link Between Hepatitis B and Liver Cancer Updates in Hepatitis B-Related Liver Cancer Care What You Need to Know About Hepatitis C and Liver Cancer Journey to the Cure: What Does Liver Cancer Research Look Like? Learning to Care: Being There for Someone with Cancer Beating the Odds: A Liver Cancer Survivor's Story    

    https://www.hepb.org/research-and-programs/liver/resources/blogs/
  • Wendy YK's Story

    Wendy was diagnosed with hepatitis B in college but wasn’t put on medication until her 30s. After a loved one passed away from liver cancer and Wendy learned that she herself may have liver damage, she started taking steps to prioritize her health and well-being over the busy, fast-paced, career-driven lifestyle that she had become accustomed to. Wendy now strives to live life to the fullest and to appreciate every moment, while effectively managing hepatitis B.  Wendy YK's story is available in English, Cantonese, and Mandarin. English Cantonese Mandarin

    https://www.hepb.org/research-and-programs/patient-story-telling-project/wendy-yks-story/
  • Why is hepatitis B so dangerous?

    Hepatitis B is dangerous because it is a “silent infection,” which means it can infect people without them knowing it. Most people who are infected with hepatitis B are unaware of their infection for many years and can unknowingly spread the virus to others through direct contact with their infected blood and sexually. Please visit this page to learn more about hepatitis B transmission and how to protect your family. For those who become chronically infected, there is an increased risk of developing serious liver disease later in life. The virus can quietly and continuously attack the liver over many years without being detected because there are often few or no notable symptoms. The only way to confirm a hepatitis B infection is through a blood test. Visit this page and learn more about testing for hepatitis B. Hepatitis B may feature typical viral hepatitis symptoms like yellow skin, yellow eye-white “sclera” and dark urine. Alternatively, it may occur unnoticed with subtle fatigue and/ or muscle pain. This is why it is often missed.   Find more Frequently Asked Questions here.    Page updated 05/09/2022

    https://www.hepb.org/what-is-hepatitis-b/faqs/why-is-hepatitis-so-dangerous/
  • DeWayne's Story

    DeWayne contracted hepatitis B when he had a blood transfusion as a child. Growing up in foster care and not having health insurance, DeWayne went without treatment for most of his life. But after getting married and becoming a dad, he found motivation to take control of his health. DeWayne started going to the doctor, taking medication to control his hepatitis B, and living a healthier lifestyle.    

    https://www.hepb.org/research-and-programs/patient-story-telling-project/dewaynes-story/
  • Blood Tests and Diagnosis for Hepatitis B

    Hepatitis B is diagnosed with a simple blood test that can be done at your doctor’s office or local health clinic. There are 3 parts to the hepatitis B panel of blood tests, so understanding your test results can be confusing. Are you infected with hepatitis B? Are you protected from hepatitis B because you were vaccinated or have recovered from a past infection? Are you at risk of being infected with hepatitis B? It is very important to understand your hepatitis B blood test results so that you receive the right kind of care and follow-up. The hepatitis B blood test requires only one sample of blood and your health care provider should order the “Hepatitis B Panel,” which includes three parts. You and your health care provider will need to know all three test results in order to fully understand whether you are infected, protected or still at risk for a hepatitis B infection. Your health care provider may ask to check your blood again in six months after your first visit to confirm your hepatitis B status. Remember to ask for a copy of your hepatitis B blood test results so that you fully understand which tests are positive or negative. Learn more about the difference between an acute versus a chronic infection.   Getting Tested Hepatitis B testing is available from many sources throughout the United States. Our Hep B United partners provide testing in cities throughout the U.S. Visit http://hepbunited.org/local-campaigns to learn more about local coalitions near you and upcoming screenings.  The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also maintain a database of testing centers, searchable by zip code, at https://gettested.cdc.gov/.

    https://www.hepb.org/prevention-and-diagnosis/diagnosis/