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  • Celebrate Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month, And Get Tested for Hepatitis B

    … Vietnamese-American men are over 10 times more likely to have liver cancer due to undiagnosed and untreated hepatitis B than their white counterparts. So why don't doctors automatically screen Asian-American patients for hepatitis B? Is it a waylaid attempt at political correctness? Or does ordering a test for hepatitis B carry with it an unspoken judgment or suspicion of drug use or suspect sexual practices that are often linked to ethnic or racial stereotypes? It is a fine line doctors straddle here. It is racist to test a patient for a sexually transmitted disease simply because of sexual stereotypes attached that patient's race or ethnicity. It is not racist to test because the patient belongs to an ethnic group or race with a high rate of a treatable, preventable illness. One doctor, writing in The New York Times several years ago, admitted, "I always take note of my patient's race. So do many of my colleagues. We do it because certain diseases and treatment responses cluster by ethnicity. Recognizing these patterns can help us diagnose disease more efficiently and prescribe medications more effectively. When it comes to practicing medicine, stereotyping often works." In the case of hepatitis B, doctors should allow race and ethnicity to guide their screening decisions because many Asian-American patients are slipping through the health care system's cracks. Failure to identify a hepatitis B leads to new infections and new liver cancers. Treating hepatitis B can be challenging for healthcare providers. Diagnosing a patient with viral hepatitis often leads to complicated treatment decisions, painful disclosures, and immunization of family members. And, sometimes, patients just don't want to know, but they need to. Patients and doctors alike need to know that ethnicity can impact an individual’s health. For example, a recent study  found that Asian-Americans are disproportionately more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, even when they’re young and not

    http://www.hepb.org/blog/celebrate-asian-pacific-american-heritage-month-and-get-screened-for-hepatitis-b/
  • Is Your Family Getting Together for the Holidays? Time to Discover Your Medical History

    … 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? And what strain or genotype of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) is our family infected with? Certain HBV genotypes respond better to interferon treatment than others, and some genotypes cause liver damage earlier than others. We can find out what genotypes we have through lab tests, but the regions our parents and grandparents immigrated from can also indicate which genotype we have. 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.

    http://www.hepb.org/blog/is-your-family-getting-together-for-the-holidays-time-to-discover-your-medical-history/
  • The Annual Hepatitis B Check-up: Facing Mortality and a Missing History

    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. “I don’t want to keep seeing you every year,” the doctor tells her with a smile. But it is my daughter who never wants to return to this sterile and colorless clinic. These annual visits are reminders of her mortality and the unknown period of her life when she became infected. My daughter was born in China. At three months of age, the orphanage tested her for hepatitis B, and she tested negative. One month later, my husband and I traveled to China and we became a family. I don’t know exactly when she became infected, but I remain profoundly thankful it takes several months for a blood test to identify a hepatitis B infection. If more time had passed and her infection had been diagnosed while in China, she may have been considered “unadoptable” and our family as we know it would never have happened. “So how do you think I got infected?” she asks me during lunch. We have discussed this before, but every year her questions and knowledge about hepatitis B become more sophisticated. But make no mistake, her question is less about

    http://www.hepb.org/blog/the-annual-hepatitis-b-check-up-facing-mortality-and-a-missing-history/
  • Do You Have to Tell Your Employer About Your Hepatitis B?

    Image courtesy of Ambro at FreeDigitalPhotos.net “Do I have to tell my new employer about my hepatitis B?” After years of cautiously completing medical forms for schools, camps and college, my daughter’s question took me by surprise. It shouldn’t have. Many jobs—even when they don’t involve direct medical care—require a physical exam and confirmation of hepatitis B immunization. There may be a safe and effective vaccine and new treatments for hepatitis B, but ignorance and stigma remain stubbornly entrenched in many HR departments. So here is what every job applicant, employee and employer should know about hepatitis B and employment. During the application process or job interview, can an employer ask about my health?No. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) strictly limits what can be asked during an interview. According to federal law, an employer can’t ask if you have a disability (such as hepatitis B) or require you to undergo a medical exam before offering you a job. They CAN ask if you can perform the job (can you lift 50 pounds if you're applying for a warehouse job) or how you would perform a job, but they can’t ask about your health. Can an employer require a medical exam or ask medical questions after an offer is made? Yes. After the offer is made, employers can require you to answer certain medical questions (such as immunization coverage) and undergo a medical exam—as long as everyone who performs that job has to undergo the same exam. If the medical exam reveals a disability that prevents you from doing the job, even after a “reasonable accommodation” is made, then the employer can withdraw the job offer. Can an employer withdraw a job offer after they learn I have hepatitis B? No, because the majority of people with hepatitis B are healthy, productive and able to perform their jobs. Unless you have severe liver disease, hepatitis B does not impair your ability to be a teacher, nurse, doctor or home health aide. If your

    http://www.hepb.org/blog/do-you-have-to-tell-your-employer-about-your-hepatitis-b/
  • Know Your Rights: What College Students with Hep B Need to Know About Health Forms and Disclosure

    … indicates that your admission or participation in certain college activities is in jeopardy, stay cool. Send them a copy of the Department of Justice letter and suggest they contact their legal counsel for appropriate advice. Call the Hepatitis B Foundation at 215-489-4900 or email the foundation at info@hepb.org if more assistance is needed. Then why do colleges ask about hepatitis B immunization? Schools cannot ask about your hepatitis B status during the application process, but once you are accepted, the school’s clinic can. Many colleges have clinics that provide basic medical care to students. Just like a doctor, the clinic wants to know about any important health information. The health form you fill out becomes part of the clinic’s medical record and should be treated confidentially under HIPAA. Why do nursing and medical programs and some colleges ask for proof of a successful hepatitis B vaccination? Health care providers are at high risk of infection of bloodborne infections, such as hepatitis B, due to their close contact with blood and body fluids. To protect them, colleges may require students to be immunized and then provide follow-up blood test results that show students have enough protective antibodies to prevent infection. Colleges cannot refuse to admit hepatitis B-infected students because they do not pose a risk to either patients or coworkers. The only risk someone with hepatitis B poses is if they have a high viral load and perform certain surgical procedures. However, no medical or nursing student performs that type of surgery as part of his or her training. Remember, you won’t be the only person at your school with a bloodborne infection. The vast majority of people with hepatitis B or C don’t know they’re infected. Because of these unknown infections, all schools and employers are required to treat everyone as if they have a bloodborne infection and use standard precautions with everyone. Links to helpful resources: The U.S.

    http://www.hepb.org/blog/know-your-rights-what-college-students-with-hep-b-need-to-know-about-health-forms-and-disclosure/
  • Major successes on Capitol Hill

    Aug. 26, 2021 – A key aspect of the Hepatitis B Foundation’s efforts to eradicating hepatitis B is advocacy, particularly trying to educate and influence members of the U.S. Congress and their staffs. Our work this year with the House Appropriations Committee resulted in major wins in terms of policy and funding priorities at several federal agencies. That includes Foundation initiative to obtain Congressional funding to create a Center of Public Health Excellence targeted at finding better treatments and ultimately the elimination if hepatitis B. Funding for the Center depends on final approval of the FY 2022 spending bills later this year. If it’s funded, the Center would be a huge win in the fight against hepatitis B. It would centralize hepatitis B elimination efforts and provide expert resources, advice, training, capacity building and technical assistance for state and local health departments, social service organizations and community health providers on how to best prevent, treat and control hepatitis B to increase the rate of adult vaccination for hepatitis B. While we wait for final word to celebrate the Center’s creation, please note the following successes that are already final and making an immediate difference.  Language included in the House Appropriations Bill that was recommended by the Foundation includes: NIH will issue new targeted calls for research to cure hepatitis B. The National Cancer Institute will support research needed to develop a liver cancer screening test using the blood and saliva samples from widespread COVID testing. The National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS) will explore ways to increase success through collaboration with business incubators, using the example of the Pennsylvania Biotech Center. CDC will have an increased $5 million in funding for its Division of Viral Hepatitis at the CDC, was encouraged to continue investing in hepatitis B grants for community-based organizations and has been asked to develop a plan to increase the rate of adult hepatitis B vaccination. The HHS Office of the Secretary was urged to make sure they are not discriminating against employees with hepatitis B and encouraged to implement strategies aimed at reversing the rates of viral hepatitis.  To learn more about this amazing progress, please click here to read the entire Report from Washington. Together we can eliminate hepatitis B.

    https://www.hepb.org/news-and-events/news-2/major-successes-on-capitol-hill/
  • Hepatitis B Foundation releases report on first-ever Externally Led Patient-Focused Drug Development meeting for hepatitis B

    Doylestown, Pa., Oct. 27, 2020 – In cooperation with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Hepatitis B Foundation hosted an Externally Led Patient-Focused Drug Development (PFDD) meeting focused on hepatitis B in June. Today, the Foundation released its comprehensive report on the information-gathering event. The Foundation has posted the 55-page report, along with a complete transcript of the meeting, the more than 300 email comments that were submitted and a link to the official video recording on its website. The FDA has reviewed and posted the report on its External Resources and Information Related to Patients’ Experience page. The Foundation was given approval by the FDA to organize and conduct this meeting, which was an online-only event due to COVID-19, making it the first PFDD to be conducted exclusively as a webcast since the agency began holding PFDD meetings in 2012. Held on June 9, the four-hour meeting allowed health care providers, FDA officials and drug developers to hear directly from patients and family members, specifically regarding their experiences living with chronic hepatitis B, to better inform these and other key stakeholders about the patient perspective. By incorporating personal anecdotes and firsthand experiences, the FDA can enhance its decision-making in terms of drug development and clinical trial design with relation to hepatitis B. The PFDD meeting focused on two formal topics: 1) living with chronic hepatitis B: symptoms and disease impacts, and 2) perspectives on current and future approaches to treatment. A panel of four individuals for each topic shared their opinions and experiences to begin the dialogue. An FDA facilitator led each discussion. Audience members who were viewing the webcast also were able to participate in the discussion by sending in comments on the Foundation website or by calling in. Additionally, participants online who are living with hepatitis B, or family members of someone living with HBV, were encouraged to participate in live polling with a series of questions and to submit comments and their own questions. More than 650 people joined the online PFDD meeting from around the globe. Chari Cohen, DrPH, MPH, who is the foundation’s senior vice president, organized the meeting. “Overall, the discussion documented the significant physical and emotional impact for people living with hepatitis B, which leads to reduced quality of life and affects family and social relationships, as well as education and careers for many people,” Dr. Cohen said. “We heard directly from the people who joined us about their experiences with fatigue, shame and isolation, stigma and discrimination, and their fear of dying prematurely from liver cancer.” Participants discussed major challenges with current treatment including finding a knowledgeable clinician to manage their hepatitis B, cost of medication, and the burden of taking a daily pill for many years.  PFDD participants stressed a strong desire for future treatments that will result in loss of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg, the blood marker of infection) and reduced risk of liver cancer over a finite treatment period. There was strong interest in participating in future clinical trials that might lead to a functional cure, as long as trials would not be too disruptive of daily lives and participants would receive adequate safety information on experimental treatments. In addition to conducting the PFDD meeting, the Foundation collected patient experiences through an online survey and in-depth phone interviews. More than 2,100 people from 102 countries responded to the survey, and 24 people participated in the phone interviews. Results coincide what the Foundation team learned from the PFDD meeting and also highlighted the different experiences and challenges faced by people living in other countries. For example, outside the U.S., more people documented experiencing stigma and discrimination, and had difficulty finding affordable care and treatment for their hepatitis B. Along with prominently posting the complete report from the June 9 PFDD on www.hepb.org, the Hepatitis B Foundation will be announcing its availability through its newsletters and social media plus professional publications and meetings. All of the experiences collected from the PFDD meeting, the survey and the interviews will be used by the Foundation to help advocate for the needs of people living with hepatitis B, and ensure that drug and clinical trial development take the needs and concerns of patients into account. # # #

    https://www.hepb.org/news-and-events/news-2/hepatitis-b-foundation-releases-report-on-first-ever-externally-led-patient-focused-drug-development-meeting-for-hepatitis-b/
  • Hepatitis B Foundation Says “Thank You!” to its 100-plus Volunteers

    Doylestown, April 22, 2020 – During National Volunteer Week in the United States, the Hepatitis B Foundation is publicly thanking its more than 100 volunteers worldwide. Those dedicated individuals work with the Foundation to help serve people living with hepatitis B, their families and health care providers, sharing information about the resources available to them, particularly about the treatment and prevention of the infectious disease. “We are extremely grateful for the many, many hours and the very creative input provided by our volunteers around the world, particularly here in the United States,” said Dr. Timothy M. Block, President of the Foundation. “Our organization was founded by volunteers and we continue to rely on volunteers for leadership, outreach, public awareness and fundraising. In fact, our annual fundraising event, which coincidentally is this Friday, depends on volunteers for auction donations and much more. So, on behalf of the Foundation, I’ll say ‘Thank you very, very much’ to all of our volunteers.” Volunteers make up the Foundation’s Board of Directors and serve as Scientific and Medical Advisors. More than 40 volunteers work as “storytellers” for the Foundation’s highly regarded #justB campaign. Some of our volunteer #justB storytellers (Photo by Alex Le).   Dr. Block and his wife, Joan, created the Foundation in 1991, with two other volunteers, Janine and Paul Janine Witte, who were deeply moved by the plight of a young family affected by hepatitis B. With the personal support of Dr. Baruch Blumberg, who won the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the hepatitis B virus, and the help of the local community, the Wittes and Blocks responded to this unmet need by working tirelessly to establish the Hepatitis B Foundation, which has since grown from a grassroots effort into a professional organization with a global reach and substantial scientific research. 

    https://www.hepb.org/news-and-events/news-2/hepatitis-b-foundation-says-thank-you-to-its-more-than-100-volunteers/
  • Message from Dr. Timothy Block, Hepatitis B Foundation President

    April 6, 2020 To the hepatitis B community around the world, Let me begin by paraphrasing something I heard, which I found inspirational: “Let’s think about a time in the near future when we are past all of this, looking back. How much we will celebrate, and how much we will have learned.”  But that time has not yet come. So, this letter is to let each of you know how the Hepatitis B Foundation and its research arm, the Baruch S. Blumberg Institute, are meeting our mission right now. And, indeed, we diligently continue to work towards our mission to find a cure and improve the quality of life for those affected by hepatitis B worldwide. Certainly, things are not as usual, but our work does continue. The COVID 19 crisis is understandably the current world priority. But it is still important that, to the extent possible, the momentum we have generated toward hepatitis B patient services and cure research continue.  Right now, our strategy focuses on endurance, service and resilience. The Hepatitis B Foundation team is primarily working from home, though our information and education services continue unchanged, and our Helpline is still running for all those who need it. Our April 24th gala will now be “virtual” with some very creative twists. Our June 9th Patient-Focused Drug Development Meeting will become a “virtual” meeting on the same date, and registration will be open to all! We are still updating our website and social media on a daily basis and, just last month, added a Clinical Trial Finder to help people with hepatitis B around the world find clinical trials near you. We also added a new resource section on COVID-19 to share information for people with hepatitis B and liver disease. The Blumberg scientists continue their research and the labs remain open to carry out our hepatitis B and liver cancer research, with additional safety measures in place and limits on the number of scientists who are in at one time. Our scientists are spending much-needed time researching, writing and attending “virtual” meetings and journal clubs. The hepatitis B and liver community should know that we have not stopped working for hepatitis B and liver cancer (HCC) patients. At a time when the world, understandably, is distracted with another, very important crisis, the work of the Hepatitis B Foundation and Blumberg is all the more critical. And we will be there.  Sincerely, Tim Block President and Co-Founder

    https://www.hepb.org/news-and-events/news-2/message-from-dr-timothy-block-hepatitis-b-foundation-president/
  • Timothy M. Block, PhD, President of Hepatitis B Foundation and its Baruch S. Blumberg Institute, named a 2017 National Academy of Inventors Fellow

    Timothy M. Block, Ph.D, has been named a Fellow of the US National Academy of Inventors (NAI), the organization announced Tuesday.  Dr. Block is President of the Hepatitis B Foundation, as well as its research arm, the Baruch S. Blumberg Institute, and its Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center. Dr. Block will be inducted into the National Academy Inventors on April 5, 2018, as part of the NAI Conference in Washington, DC.    Election to NAI Fellow status is the highest professional accolade bestowed solely to academic inventors who have demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development, and welfare of society.    Dr. Block is being recognized for his contributions to therapeutic drug and biomarker of disease screening and discovery. Specifically, for methods of DNA transfer to mammalian cells (1979), methods of discovery of antiviral drugs and biomarkers of liver cancer (1986, 1996, 2000, 2003).  Dr. Block has been involved in viral hepatitis research for more than 30 years as a member of the faculty at Thomas Jefferson University (1984-2005) and Drexel University School of Medicine (2005-2015). He is also Adjunct Professor, Geisinger and University of Pennsylvania. School of Medicine. He has received numerous honors, including an honorary Medical Degree from the Bulgarian National Academy, elected Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the Glycobiology Institute of the University of Oxford.  He holds more than 9 patents, co-authored more than 240 scholarly papers, and was named a “Visionary in Hepatitis” by the World Hepatitis Alliance in 2017. Dr. Block is a co-founder of the Hepatitis B Foundation (HBF), which created the Baruch S. Blumberg Institute in 2003 to fulfill its research mission. In 2006, Dr. Block co-founded the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center, an accelerator for start up companies. The companies are now collectively valued at more than $1.5 billion.  Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center is home to, and managed by, the Blumberg Institute and Hepatitis B Foundation, and is intended to expand their research capabilities.  With the election of the 2017 class there are now 912 NAI Fellows, representing over 250 research universities and governmental and non-profit research institutes. The 2017 Fellows are named inventors on nearly 6,000 issued U.S. patents, bringing the collective patents held by all NAI Fellows to more than 32,000 issued U.S. patents.  Included among all NAI Fellows are more than 100 presidents and senior leaders of research universities and non-profit research institutes; 439 members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; 36 inductees of the National Inventors Hall of Fame; 52 recipients of the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation and U.S. National Medal of Science; 29 Nobel Laureates; 261 AAAS Fellows; 168 IEEE Fellows; and 142 Fellows of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, among other awards and distinctions.  Baruch S. Blumberg, M.D., Ph.D., inventor of the original hepatitis B vaccine, was inducted in 1993.  On Apr. 5, 2018, the 2017 NAI Fellows will be inducted as part of the Seventh Annual NAI Conference of the National Academy of Inventors at the Mayflower Hotel, Autograph Collection in Washington, D.C. Andrew H. Hirshfeld, U.S. Commissioner for Patents, will provide the keynote address for the induction ceremony.   The 2017 NAI Fellows will be highlighted with a full page announcement in The Chronicle of Higher Education Jan. 19, 2018 issue, and in an upcoming issue of Science and Technology and Innovation, Journal of the National Academy of Inventors.  Those elected to the rank of NAI Fellow are named inventors on U.S. patents and were nominated by their peers for outstanding contributions to innovation in areas such as patents and licensing, innovative discovery and technology, significant impact on society, and support and enhancement of innovation.  The 2017 class of NAI Fellows was evaluated by the 2017 Selection Committee, which included 18 members comprising NAI Fellows, U.S. National Medals recipients, National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees, members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and senior officials from the USPTO, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Association of American Universities, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, Association of University Technology Managers, and National Inventors Hall of Fame, among other organizations.  # # #    About the Hepatitis B Foundation: The Hepatitis B Foundation is the nation’s leading nonprofit organization solely dedicated to finding a cure for hepatitis B and improving the quality of life for those affected worldwide through research, education and patient advocacy. To learn more, go to www.hepb.org, read our blog at http://hepb.org/blog, follow us on Twitter @HepBFoundation, find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/hepbfoundation or call 215-489-4900.    About the Baruch S. Blumberg Institute: The Baruch S. Blumberg Institute is an independent, nonprofit research institute established in 2003 by the Hepatitis B Foundation to conduct discovery research and nurture translational biotechnology in an environment conducive to interaction, collaboration and focus. It was renamed in 2013 to honor Baruch S. Blumberg, who won the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the hepatitis B virus and co-founded the Hepatitis B Foundation. To learn more, visit www.blumberginstitute.org.    About the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center: The Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center offers state-of-the-art laboratory and office space to nonprofit research companies and biotech companies. Managed by the Baruch S. Blumberg Institute and led by a board appointed by the Hepatitis B Foundation, the Center was funded in part by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The facility opened in 2006 in a formerly abandoned warehouse and has since grown to encompass 110,000 square feet on a 10-acre campus. To learn more, visit www.pabiotechbc.org.   * * *  The National Academy of Inventors is a 501(c)(3) non-profit member organization comprising U.S. and international universities, and governmental and non-profit research institutes, with over 4,000 individual inventor members and Fellows spanning more than 250 institutions worldwide. It was founded in 2010 to recognize and encourage inventors with patents issued from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, enhance the visibility of academic technology and innovation, encourage the disclosure of intellectual property, educate and mentor innovative students, and translate the inventions of its members to benefit society.     

    https://www.hepb.org/news-and-events/news-2/timothy-m-block-phd-president-of-hepatitis-b-foundation-and-its-baruch-s-blumberg-institute-named-a-2017-national-academy-of-inventors-fellow/