Hepatitis Awareness Organization Educates East Bay Community

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Hepatitis Awareness Organization Educates East Bay Community

By Kaori Zinke

Contributing Writer

Date Added Monday, April 19, 2010 | 12:20 pm

Last Updated Monday, April 19, 2010 | 11:45 pm

Almost a year after he founded the Hep B Project, a UC Berkeley student

organization, senior Hur is closer to his goal of educating all 375,000

Asians in Alameda County about hepatitis B.

The organization is the first of its kind on campus to offer extensive community

outreach, helping Asians and Pacific Islanders get vaccinated for hepatitis B in

Oakland. So far, the project has reached more than 3,000 Asians in Alameda

County about the prevalence of hepatitis B in the Asian population.

" As college students at Berkeley, we can address health disparities in our own

community without being doctors, " said Hur, a molecular and cell biology major.

Hepatitis B is a viral infection that, if left untreated, can lead to liver

cancer, cirrhosis or, in some cases, death.

According to Meredith , a Hep B Free coordinator from the Asian Liver

Center at Stanford University, currently one in 10 Asians in the U.S. are

chronically infected with hepatitis B, and two-thirds of those infected are not

aware of it, as symptoms often go unnoticed.

About 40 percent of Asians in Alameda County who do not have health insurance

have not yet been vaccinated, according to Hur.

The Hep B Project organizes presentations and health fairs for the Asian and

Pacific Islander communities throughout Alameda County. Students involved in the

project have also brought 220 patients to be screened for hepatitis B at a local

lab and 130 patients to be vaccinated for the infection at the Street Level

Health Project in Oakland.

" We're serving a population of people who wouldn't normally have the access to

health care services, and we're probably the only means of them getting that

service, " said Xu, co-founder of the Hep B Project.

Kathy Ahoy, an Alameda County public health nurse who works at the Street Level

Health Project, said student volunteers are a valuable resource because in many

cases they translate for non-English speaking Asian and Pacific Islander

community members.

" If (patients) don't have any health insurance or any primary doctor, these

students link the patients to appropriate care, " Ahoy said.

To expand its scope, the Hep B Project has applied for a $25,000 grant from

Pepsi Refresh Project. If awarded, the money will go toward educating more

community members, screening 1,500 more patients and continuing to provide free

hepatitis B vaccines for uninsured and low-income residents, Hur said.

His work on the Hep B Project helped him become one of five UC Berkeley students

to be awarded the Clinton Global Initiative University Outstanding Commitment

Award in 2009. He attended the initiative's university meeting in Florida last

weekend.

Hur added that he hopes the Hep B Project can serve as an example for addressing

other health issues in the community, such as diabetes and hypertension.

" This project is a model for college students to show that students can help

health disparities in underserved populations, " he said