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Public Service Announcement Our hepatitis prevention public service
announcement is now online and available for download.
Click Here Press Releases U.S. Expert Promotes Hepatitis Prevention at WHO Meeting in Italy Breaking News
HFI Launches Partners in Liver Wellness Initiative
The Influence of NAFLD and Its Associated Co-morbidities on Liver Transplant Outcomes Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease is a rising epidemic in the US, fueled in part by the dual epidemics of obesity and diabetes. As NAFLD increases in incidence and prevalence, researchers expect it to become the leading indication for liver transplantation in the next two decades. The abstract of a new study from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill was presented at Digestive Disease Week, May 1-5 in New Orleans, LA. The study found that NAFLD is significantly associated with worse transplant outcomes (death and graft failure) within the first 30 days after a liver transplant. The study, which observed 118 liver transplants in a three-year period, is based on previous research published in 2009 that reached similar conclusions.
FDA Considers Expanded Use of HCV Drugs The FDA is considering the establishment of a compassionate use program that would allow severely ill hepatitis C (HCV) patients access to investigational, direct-acting antiviral agents. This effort to control Hepatitis C more effectively is in response to a petition by groups seeking access to the drugs for individuals often excluded from clinical trials, which are only open to a small subset of real-world HCV patients. Many patients are rejected from clinical trials due to co-morbidities, drug use, and mental illnesses. Check out the rest of the article, which features commentary from Dr. Diana Sylvestre, a speaker at HFI's Viral Hepatitis Summits:
Many children with hepatitis C go undiagnosed and untreated, which can lead to severe liver damage later in life. National data shows that between 0.2 percent and 0.4 percent of children in the United States is infected with hepatitis C. Most children and adults infected with hepatitis C do not have symptoms or they may have fatigue or abdominal pain. This results in the lack of proper identification. Most young children get the infection from their mothers while in the womb, which accounts for about 60 percent of the infections in young children. Teenagers can get it through IV drug use and other substance abuse. Unfortunately, there is a widespread lack of awareness of the condition and adequate screening is not often done. Moreover, children are too often not referred to treatment. Early identification of pediatric hepatitis C infection would likely help us cure the infection in over 50 percent of children that currently have it.
Deadly Cancer is Preventable Liver cancer, or hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), is the third leading cause of death from cancer worldwide and the ninth leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections account for an estimated 78% of global HCC cases. To determine trends in HCC incidence in the United States, CDC analyzed data for the period 2001--2006 (the most recent data available). The average annual incidence rate of HCC for 2001--2006 was 3.0 per 100,000 persons and increased significantly from 2.7 per 100,000 persons in 2001 to 3.2 in 2006, with an average annual percentage change in incidence rate of 3.5%. The largest increases in HCC incidence rates were among whites and persons aged 50--59 years. Development of viral hepatitis services, including screening with care referral for persons chronically infected with HBV or HCV, full implementation of vaccine-based strategies to eliminate hepatitis B, and improved public health surveillance are needed to help reverse the trend in HCC.
Read full report: CDC MMWR
Improved Hep B Outcomes After Liver Transplant A report from the Mayo Clinic stated that treatment to reduce the recurrence of hepatitis B appears to improve liver transplant outcomes. Hepatitis B infection is a major cause of liver damage that can eventually lead to end-stage liver disease and the need for a liver transplant. New medications that include antiviral therapy and hepatitis B immune globulin to reduce the risk of recurrence have improved outcomes. In the past, hepatitis B has recurred in transplant patients, causing severe liver damage and the need for a second transplant. The study showed that in patients with HBV, the number of people listed for a second transplant within three years decreased by fifty percent between 1996 and 2005.
New York Needs Organ Donors! According to the director of the Rochester-finger Lakes Eye and Tissue Bank, Linda Fraser, the need for life-saving transplants is dire in New York State, but the number of eligible people actually registered as organ donors is significantly lower than most states. As of 2009, only 13 percent of eligible New Yorkers were registered to be donors (the age requirement to donate is 18 and up), while in other states such as Alaska, the number is as high as 70 percent. Fraser attributes these low numbers to the fact that New York is one of the few states that does not permit organ donor registration online-most people register through the DMV when obtaining or renewing their driver's license. In addition, there are many misunderstood principles associated with organ donation. Most people do not understand the intricacies of such a procedure unless there has been a need in the family for a transplant.
Semen Unlikely to be Reason For Sexually-Transmitted HCV A new study has revealed that the hepatitis C virus is detectable in the semen of a minority of HIV-positive gay men co-infected with both viruses at very low levels, indicating that transmission of hepatitis C during sex is via blood, not semen. These findings are leaving researchers looking for an explanation as to why HIV-positive men are estimated to be 50 times more likely to acquire HCV than HIV-negative men. The study recruited men from the HCV cohort at Mortimer Market in London.
Hepatitis C Infection Doubles Risk for Kidney Cancer
Physicians at Henry Ford
Hospital have found that Hepatitis C infected patients had
nearly double the risk of developing kidney cancer, after
assessing age, gender, race, and underlying kidney disease.
These results show that the hepatitis C virus causes disease
that extends beyond the liver, and in fact most of our
HCV-infected kidney cancer patients had only minimal liver
damage. This
establishes the need for a more careful surveillance of newly
diagnosed kidney cancer patients for the presence of hepatitis C
infection, one of the few cancers with a rising global
incidence. Read more: Health News Digest New Drug Cures Hard-to-Treat Hepatitis C Telaprevir is one of two highly anticipated drugs in the class known as protease inhibitors being studied in patients with chronic hepatitis C infection, a condition that affects about 3 million Americans and is the leading cause of liver transplants in the U.S. About 40% of previously untreated HCV patients are cured with the current treatment regimen, which includes 48 weeks of peginterferon and Ribavirin. A second round of treatment is often recommended for patients who fail to respond to initial treatment or who respond and then relapse. When the drug telaprevir was added to standard treatment with peginterferon Alfa and Ribavirin, which are also antiviral, about half of patients who had failed previous treatment with the two drugs cleared the virus.
Liver Test For Kids Inaccurate A new study shows that the routine screening test used to detect liver problems in children is being interpreted differently across the nation, allowing many cases to go undetected. The study at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine has been revealed that the common screening test for chronic liver disease that uses serum alanine aminotransferease (ALT) is using different values to detect risks for kids across many of the nation's children's hospitals. The children were placed in four groups to a new limit of normal ALT: children with normal livers; with chronic hepatitis B virus; with hepatitis C virus; and children with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. The study revealed only one-third to one-half of children with liver disease would be detected by the old standards and that the new values established by the study would improve detection to 70 to 80 percent.
HCV Therapy Fails in Many Urban Patients
The standard treatment for hepatitis C, which is
highly effective in clinical trials, may be unavailable,
inappropriate, or ineffective in urban U.S. patients. In
clinical trials, treatment with Pegylated Interferon and
Ribavirin, yielded sustained viral response rates between 54%
and 63%. But in an urban population, with many members of ethnic
minorities, sustained viral response rates were between 14% and
37%. The study also confirms that members of ethnic minorities,
who are usually under-represented in clinical trials, do not
fare as well as expected with treatment in the real world.
Physicians need to know not only the efficacy of combination
therapy as demonstrated in phase III registration trials, but
also its effectiveness: the outcome of treatment in patients
like their own receiving ordinary clinical care. Read more: MedPage Today
The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to support legislation that would tighten up regulation of oversight of businesses that provide tattooing, body piercing and permanent cosmetic application services. The Safe Body Art Act would establish minimum statewide health and oversight standards for tattoo parlors and body art businesses. The absence of statewide regulations and standards puts public health at risk by increasing the threat of blood-borne diseases, particularly Hepatitis C and HIV. Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have linked clusters of antibiotic-resistant skin infections to unlicensed tattoo artists who didn't follow proper sterilization and needle disposal procedures. Read more: http://www.sbsun.com/sports/ci_14687937#ixzz0iRwr2fZg
HEPATITIS B VACCINE AND TREATMENTS, STUDY REVEALS
March 12, 2010, 01:03 pm Approximately 20 percent of infants born to mothers with hepatitis B are not receiving the proper preventative treatments, researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found in a recent study published in the April 2010 issue of Pediatrics. Infants who receive the hepatitis B vaccine and hepatitis B immunoglobulin (an injection of hepatitis B antibodies) are 85 to 95 percent protected from the disease. CDC researchers examined medical records of 4,762 mothers and 4,786 infants, with 18 women testing positive for hepatitis B upon admission to the hospital.
According to CDC epidemiologist and study author Bayo Wills, transmission of hepatitis B is almost entirely preventable through vaccination and proper medical procedures created to protect people from the disease. "We really need hospitals to have correct policies in place and to implement those policies so that every newborn is protected before they leave the hospital," said Willis. Recommendations provided by the CDC state that newborns should receive the hepatitis B vaccine at birth, followed by booster shots at one and six months old. Of the 190 hospitals examined in the study, only 67 percent had a policy in place to ensure hepatitis B vaccination. "The greatest predictor of which children would get the hepatitis vaccine was the hospital having a policy for universal vaccination of infants. Our study shows that gaps still persist in perinatal hepatitis prevention," added Willis.
Though 62 percent of the infants of hepatitis B-positive mothers received the proper hepatitis B vaccination and immunoglobulin, approximately 14 percent of the newborns did not receive the vaccination, while nearly 20 percent did not receive the injection of hepatitis B immunoglobulin before leaving the hospital. Approximately 52 percent of babies born to an additional 320 women with an unknown hepatitis B status received the hepatitis B vaccine within 12 hours of birth, while 20 percent of the infants left the hospital unvaccinated. Additional information about drugs and drug side effects [1] may be found on DrugWatch.com.
Miss Apple Blossom Takes Liver
Messages to School
Thelma has influenced people all over the world throughout the years with her charming and witty presentations that healthcare providers and “regular folks” alike can relate to. The award recognizing her support for the digestive disease activist community was presented to Thelma by the DDNC's Chairperson Linda Aukett.
Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. has reported that the FDA's
Gastrointestinal Drugs Advisory
A Harvard University chemistry professor has developed a
prototype for a small "paper http://www.switched.com/2010/02/25/paper-chips-could-provide-cheap-diagnosis-of-hiv-and-hepatitis/
West Virginia University's International Travel
Clinic has taken up the initiative to educate students on the
health risks associated with certain travel destinations that
students may visit during their spring break vacations. As many
students will be traveling abroad this spring, the travel clinic
is available for student inquiry about immunizations via
personal appointment and phone consultations. Healthcare
employees at the clinic recommend that students be immunized for
Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, and tetanus before going abroad. The
travel clinic uses recommendations set forth by the
International Association of Medical Assistance to Travelers, an
organization that combines the efforts of the Center for Disease
Control, the World Health Organization, and state departments
across the US. http://www.thedaonline.com/news/travel-clinic-prepares-students-for-spring-break-abroad-1.1171315
Liver steatosis, a condition that develops due to
a degeneration of lipids within liver cells is common in
patients with chronic Hepatitis C. New research shows that the
relationship between the virus and steatosis is the result of
both epigenetic and genetic factors. The study found that
Hepatitis C can alter standard lipid metabolism within the liver
because of an interaction between the virus and MTP. Based on
these results, researchers concluded that steatosis associated
with hepatitis C could be a storage disease induced by the
effects of the virus and may cause more persistent infection in
persons with HCV.
http://www.nafwa.org/nafwa-library/129-free-full-text-articles-and-books/3577-hepatic-steatosis-in-hepatitis-c-is-a-storage-disease-due-to-hcv-interaction-with-microsomal-triglyceride-transfer-protein-mtp Dr. Anna S. Lok of the University of Michigan Medical Center has recently published the results of a study on biomarkers in the diagnosis of liver cancer. Liver cancer is the third most common cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide and its increasing prevalence in the US is largely attributed to cases of Hepatitis C. Currently, ultra-sonography is the preferred surveillance method for liver cancer, but many cases are not detected until later stages of progression. Lok's study showed that serum indicators varied by patient demographics, a factor that may be integral in improving this method of diagnosis for liver cancer, preventing late-stage diagnosis and saving lives.
Thelma King Thiel Receives Above and Beyond Citizen Award
HFI’s CEO
Thelma King
Thiel
received the
Above and
Beyond
Citizen
Honors
presented by
the
Congressional
Medal of
Honor
Foundation
as an unsung
hero for her
Italy Hepatitis Foundation International’s (HFI) CEO, Thelma King Thiel, creator of the unique ”liver” cartoon and humorous messages about the liver, was invited to share her techniques with representatives from the World Health Organization and 12 European countries at a meeting held in Lucca, Italy March 13-14, 2008. Calling the liver one’s personal power plant, she described how drugs, alcohol and hepatitis viruses attack and kill liver cells, the employees in this miraculous powerplant. She encouraged the attendees to engage caregivers, educators and patients in promoting liver wellness and healthy lifestyle behaviors to help bring viral hepatitis under control. Members of the Viral Hepatitis Prevention Board, affiliate of the World Health Organization (WHO), and the European Liver Patient Association (ELPA) welcomed having new and non-threatening techniques to enhance their efforts to prevent viral hepatitis and other blood borne pathogens. Ms Thiel said, " Dollars devoted to prevention will circumvent the tragedy of this disease for individuals around the world, many of whom have no resources for treatment, if infected". Ms Thiel was recommended by John W. Ward, M.D. Director, Division of Viral Hepatitis, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to represent the United States and share her approach to prevention with the attendees. Dr. Ward, who also attended the meeting, commented, “Your participation added a lot to the meeting particularly your passion for viral hepatitis prevention which the audience responded enthusiastically to at the end of your presentation.” The purpose of the meeting was to identify the role and impact of various partner agencies, organizations and patient groups on bringing hepatitis under control. Patient access to care and support for treatments for viral hepatitis were high priorities for many of the European organizations. The focus of Ms. Thiel’s presentation was to share new and easily replicated messages promoting primary and secondary prevention. Representatives from WHO/EURO, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, The Netherlands, and the UK received a copy of HFI’s Foundation for Decision Making Teacher’s Guide and a DVD called The Invisible Threat. Applauded for her exceptional educational approach, Ms. Thiel commented “I was encouraged by the positive response by several attendees as an educational “eye opener.” The Hepatitis Foundation International, a non profit organization located in Silver Spring, MD, is recognized internationally for its unique liver wellness approach, its series of 14 DVDs and educational materials promoting primary and secondary prevention of viral hepatitis and other blood borne pathogens. HFI’s Foundation for Decision Making™ Training Program has been embraced by numerous government agencies including the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention and Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, numerous health departments and community organizations reaching thousands of educators, healthcare providers, substance abuse and mental health counselors, and social workers. HFI Chief Represented USA at European Liver Meeting The Viral Hepatitis Prevention Board,
WHO Collaborating Centre for Prevention and Control of Viral Hepatitis,
and the European Liver Patient Association will hold a meeting on
“Preventing and control of viral hepatitis; the role and impact of liver
patient groups in and outside Europe” in Lucca, Italy, March 13, 14
2008. The purpose of the meeting is to open a dialogue to identify the
role and impact of various partner agencies, organizations and patient
groups. Thelma King Thiel, Chair and CEO of the Hepatitis Foundation
International (HFI) will be representing the United States reporting on
prevention initiatives and collaborative efforts with patient groups,
local and federal government agencies and the Center for Disease Control
and Prevention. “I look forward to sharing our unique primary and
secondary prevention program and materials called
Foundation for Decision Making
with several European countries,” says Thiel. “Our mutual goal is to
bring viral hepatitis under control and to improve outcomes of patients
in treatment.” Give Your Liver a Break DVD wins Emmy The National Academy of Arts and Sciences presented the Emmy Award for outstanding achievement in television programming for children to Hepatitis Foundation International's newest production, "Give Your Liver a Break". Bill Shomo accepted the award at the Emmy Awards Ceremony held in Orlando, Florida. Kudos to Bill, President of Chaumont Communications, who co-produced the DVD with HFI. "Through Bill's exceptional ability to tailor messages promoting liver wellness to various audience's in the series of fourteen DVDs he has created for HFI, millions of viewers, young and old, have received messages to help them live healthier lives," said Thelma King Thiel, HFI's CEO.
"Give Your Liver a Break" and other HFI DVDs are available for
viewing on our website, to preview, Click
Here. |
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The Hepatitis Foundation International hosted the 
Shannon
Beam, Miss Apple Blossom Festival 2010, has joined
Hepatitis Foundation International as a spokesperson, taking
On March 7 and 8, 2010, the Digestive Disease National
extraordinary
courage and
selflessness
in promoting
liver
wellness
and
healthy lifestyles.
Affectionately
known as ”The Liver
Lady”,
Thelma has dedicated her
life to
educating
people about
the importance
of liver
health
following
the loss of
her
four-year-old
son, Dean, to
a rare liver
disease four
decades ago.
Her
inspirational
message
empowers
individuals
with
knowledge
and
challenges
them to take
responsibility
for their
own health
and
wellness.
She is an
inspiration
to all who
know her.
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