By Shandesh | Sunday, Oct 16, 2016
Recently, the San Francisco Hepatitis B Free Campaign launched a new controversial and in-your-face print, billboard and television advertising campaign in the Bay Area called “Which One Deserves to Die.” San Francisco has the highest rate of liver cancer in the United States due to the fact that 1 in 10 Asian Americans, most unbeknown to them, are infected with “Hep B” – a leading cause of that cancer. Asians make up over 30% of San Franciscans.
The campaign is being published in several languages including Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese targeting English-speaking doctors outside the Asian community who might not be aware of the prevalence of the disease amongst Asians.
We’ve blogged about Hepatitis B in the past and continue to do so since this disease affects Asian Americans disproportionately; Hep B is preventable, treatable and early treatment can save lives. And to my surprise, Hep B is not something that is screened normally when you donate blood. So the next time you have a checkup and blood work done, ask your doctor to check for Hep B.
And this is why you fill out the census, folks: so that such health awareness programs targeted to such specific demographics can get the much needed and appropriate federal aid that they deserve.
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Editor's Note: You might have seen this provacative ad campaign already: ten asian beauty queens with the bold statement, "which one deserves to die?" It's about raising awareness of the fact that one in ten Asian Americans are infected with Hepatitis B. San Francisco is a gateway city for Asian immigrants from countries with a high prevalence of Hepatitis B. Recent data released from the National Cancer Institute says that San Francisco also has the highest rate of liver cancer in the nation. Eight out of ten liver cancer patients start off as Hepatitis B patients. Dr. Stuart Fong runs the Hepatitis B vaccination clinic at the Chinese Hospital in San Francisco. He talks about the campaign to make San Francisco the first Hepatitis B free city in the country.
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In Ads, Plea for Asians to Get Tests for Hepatitis
Photo A free hepatitis B clinic offered screenings and vaccinations. Rong Chen, 85, had blood drawn for a screening. Credit Jim Wilson/The New York Times
SAN FRANCISCO — It is an image both shocking and strangely serene: 10 beauty queens, each with a broad smile, sparkling earrings and a beautiful gown. And written across the bottom of the photograph is a simple, stark question.
“Which one,” it reads, “deserves to die?”
The image is part of a provocative advertising campaign by San Francisco Hep B Free, which aims to eradicate the disease with citywide vaccinations against hepatitis B. The campaign debuts here in print and on television this week and is aimed at jarring the city’s large Asian population into confronting the stubborn public health hazard of hepatitis B.
San Francisco health officials estimate that as many as 1 in 10 residents of Asian descent are infected with the virus here, a percentage that contributes to the nation’s highest rate of liver cancer, an unhappy distinction for a city that prides itself on its innovative universal health plan as well as its response to past epidemics like AIDS. In the general population, about 1 in 1,000 people are infected with hepatitis B, which attacks the liver.
A large part of the problem, according to leaders in the Chinese-American community, which is the largest Asian ethnicity here, is the stigma attached to the disease, which is endemic in much of Asia. The advertisements encourage people to get a “simple blood test” because “hepatitis B can be treated, even prevented.”
“We are not a confrontational group,” said Fiona Ma, a state assemblywoman from San Francisco, who is Chinese-American. “No one wants to talk about it. But we know that people care about their families and their friends. And maybe if they know it can affect them, then maybe they’ll talk about it.”
Ms. Ma knows of what she speaks; several years ago, she learned she had hepatitis B, which she apparently contracted from her mother. The virus that causes the disease can be spread through blood or other bodily fluids, said Dr. Edward A. Chow, vice president of the San Francisco Health Commission, who said that the disease often displays few symptoms in its carriers.
“It doesn’t manifest itself until it’s really too late,” said Dr. Chow, who said about 25 percent of patients, if untreated, develop serious ailments like liver failure.
The campaign’s confrontational approach has ruffled some feathers. Vicky M. Wong, the president and chief executive of DAE, the San Francisco firm that developed the ads, said that several of the beauty queen models walked out of the photo sessions because they were worried about its approach.
Photo The new advertising campaign, which is debuting this week. Credit San Francisco Hep B free
“There were so many debates as to whether ‘Are we going too far, is this right or not?’ ” said Ms. Wong, whose company specializes in campaigns geared to Asian audiences. “We got a lot of pushback. But there’s a lot of people who loved it.”
Ted Fang, a committee member for Hep B Free, said the high rate of infection among Asians here has been especially frustrating considering that a vaccine for the disease has existed for nearly 30 years.
“We have the medical tools, so long as doctors will test their patients and monitor them,” Mr. Fang said. “We can knock out this disease.”
Mr. Fang and others liken the city’s efforts to the battle against AIDS, which ravaged San Francisco and its gay community in the 1980s and 1990s and also inspired in-your-face tactics. The Hep B Free program began several years ago with a more gentle campaign — the tagline was “B A Hero” — but organizers said it had gone only so far.
“Saying ‘Life is beautiful; get tested,’ doesn’t work,” Ms. Wong said.
For the “Which one deserves to die?” campaign Ms. Wong enlisted volunteers from the Asian community to pose for photographs, depicting families, a basketball team, a group of doctors and office workers.
While the campaign is being published in several languages — including Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese — a target group is English-speaking doctors, outside the Asian community, who might not be aware of the prevalence of the disease.
“Within our ethnic groups, we are all aware of this, because we all have friends and families who have it,” Dr. Chow said. “But if you are a very busy practitioner who has a lot of different types of patients, you may not know to check at first.”
For Ms. Ma, the assemblywoman, who said she discovered she was positive for hepatitis B when she tried to donate blood, her goal was to bring the disease “above ground,” she said. And it is personal: while she is in good health, her mother, who is in her 70s, had part of her liver removed as a result of the disease.
She recovered, Ms. Ma said, but others she knew have not.
“It’s a silent killer,” she said.
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