Team HBV is the outreach arm of the Jade Ribbon Campaign, comprising a global network of volunteers based out of the Asian Liver Center (ALC) at Stanford University. This includes Team HBV Collegiate Chapters, which engages undergraduate students across the United States to prevent and control hepatitis B and liver cancer in their communities. In the fight against this eradicable disease, our primary goal is to empower others with knowledge about hepatitis B and their own status. Through targeted educational outreach, we dispel stigma and alert at-risk people to opportunities for prevention. Through advocacy, we raise awareness of this health disparity among members of the public, policy-makers, and future leaders. Through community partnerships, we promote and facilitate prevention activities, such as accessible hepatitis B screenings and vaccinations.
ABOUT HEPATITIS B Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection remains one of the most neglected pandemics in the world, taking 1 million lives a year and causing the majority of liver cancer cases. This blood-borne and sexually transmitted virus is not only 10 times more common worldwide than HIV/AIDS, but is also 50-100 more infectious. Due to lack of global attention, 1 in 20 people (350 million) in the world have become chronically infected for life with this preventable disease. Some facts and statistics:
HBV causes 60-80% of primary liver cancer. Liver cancer caused by HBV only has a 3-5% overall survival rate, with little improvement in the last decade. It kills approximately 1 person every 30-45 seconds. HBV is called the “silent killer” because there are usually no symptoms until it is too late to treat it. Chronic hepatitis B infection disproportionately affects the Asian community in the U.S. Approximately 1 in 10 Asian and Pacific Islander (API) Americans have chronic hepatitis B infection compared to 1 in 1,000 Caucasian Americans. Liver cancer is the sixth most common newly diagnosed cancer and the third most common cause of cancer mortality in the world. 1 in 4 will die from HBV-related liver cancer or cirrhosis if not treated. Misconceptions about modes of contagion lead to discrimination against people who are chronically infected with the hepatitis B virus.
Why We Care: Despite its high prevalence and low late survival rate, HBV is both treatable and vaccine-preventable if detected early. A safe and effective 3-shot vaccine series provides life-long protection, but must be administered before infection, which often occurs without symptoms. This makes routine screening of hepatitis B a priority for at-risk populations such as API Americans. We strive to bring these services to those in need and to ensure their sustainability.
Last revised Aug 2011
ABOUT TEAM HBV COLLEGIATE CHAPTERS Team HBV Collegiate was founded in 2006 and now has active chapters at Brown, Cornell, Duke, Harvard, Emory, Princeton, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UCLA, UCSD, UPenn, USC, and University of Washington. We are continuing to expand and also have sister chapters in China. On campus and in the greater community, we have been distributing educational brochures, holding seminars with documentary films and speakers, promoting awareness at campus-wide events, and building partnerships with local community churches, restaurants, supermarkets, health departments, clinics, refuge centers and nonprofit organizations. Past and present activities include: Training knowledgeable educators through HBV assessment surveys and organizing lecture seminars and documentary screenings Distributing culturally sensitive and easy-to-understand educational brochures on HBV to students and local residents Promoting awareness through a variety of campus-wide and community-wide events and conducting campus-wide hepatitis B knowledge surveys before and after events to evaluate effectiveness of outreach Building fruitful partnerships with other student organizations and with local groups in the community for educational outreach as well as acquiring grants to vaccinate API’s in specific communities. Practicing political advocacy to garner federal aid for HBV awareness and vaccination programs by writing to local legislatures to declare an annual Hepatitis B Awareness Day Establishing Team HBV Collegiate Chapters at undergraduate universities across the nation and raising funds towards the global Jade Ribbon Campaign Team HBV chapters are also looking to do volunteer work on a global scale by coordinated trips to China to help with vaccinations and outreach activities. To read more on Team HBV and its activities, please see our latest event report at http://bit.ly/teamhbv-fall2010. TEAM HBV CONTACTS Although each chapter has its own president and Executive Board, the Team HBV Advisory Board oversees the national organization. The Advisory Board of the Team HBV Collegiate Chapters works continuously and collaboratively to facilitate the Team HBV Collegiate Chapters throughout the calendar year. It overlooks and supervises the collegiate chapters in the United States, reports to the ALC for progress updates and provides resources for all Team HBV chapters. Each member of the Advisory Board has a complementary role with respect to the Executive Board of each Collegiate Chapter, and advises their counterparts on the Executive Boards. Contact the advisors: advisors@teamhbv.org We encourage you again to visit our general website at www.teamhbv.org, and we hope you will join the efforts to promote the Jade Ribbon Campaign and end this global epidemic.
Last revised Aug 2011