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Colorado
Hepatitis C Support Groups
For individuals infected with hepatitis C and family members affected by hepatitis C. Free and confidential. New members always welcome.
Metro-Denver
Aurora - 900 Potomac, 1st Floor Staff Cafeteria, 1st Tuesday 6:30 - 8pm, Consuelo (303) 367-2813
Englewood - 1000 Englewood Pkwy, 4th Tuesday 6:30 - 8pm, Deidrea (303) 504-1853
Lakewood - 11500 W. 20th, 2nd Tuesday 6:30 - 8pm, Betsy (303) 237-1150
HIV/HCV Co-infection - 1660 S. Albion, 4th Tuesday 5:30 - 7pm, Kim (303) 862-0407
Statewide
Boulder -
YWCA 2222 14th Street, EDGE Classroom, 2nd Wednesday of the month, 6 - 7:30pm, Carrie (303) 875-2568
Special Mention:
This group will meet for a pot-luck dinner on Wednesday the 16th rather than the regular scheduled time.
CO Springs -
825 E. Pikes Peak Ave., 5th Floor Dining Rm, 3rd Thursday of the month, 7 - 8:30pm, Dave (719) 440-0025
Ft. Collins -
2809 E. Harmony, 3rd Floor, Last Wednesday 6:30 - 8 pm, Jerry (970) 214-2912
Grand Junction -
515 28 3/4 Road Bldg A, 1st Wednesday 5:15-6:45 pm, Rainy (970) 208-4507
Pueblo -
Main Pueblo Library 100 East Abriendo Ave., Rm 211, 3rd Monday, 6 - 7:30pm, Dave (719) 440-0025
For information regarding national support groups, please call our HelpLine at 800-522-HEPC (4372) |
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Greetings!
Welcome to the September 2009 edition of Connections!
Dear friends and supporters of Hep C Connection,
The State of Colorado is in the same fiscal situation as most states, needing to make additional budget cuts because revenue is not keeping pace with projections. Colorado's Governor Ritter announced his budget cuts on August 15th for the current fiscal year and the funds for the hepatitis C program at the state health department were not cut. This is great news for Hep C Connection because they are one of our few funding sources for hepatitis C programs. The Governor's staff will be presenting the budget for the next fiscal year (July 2010 to June 2011) on November 2nd and we will keep you posted regarding any cuts that may be proposed for the state hepatitis C program as a result of that presentation.
Thank you for your continued support.
Sincerely,
Nancy Steinfurth
Executive Director
We want to hear from you! To comment or contribute interesting news and information about hepatitis, please send us a note at info@hepc-connection.org. The deadline for news postings is September 25th.
Please share our newsletter with others by simply forwarding it to others, or by using the forwarding option at the bottom. Thank you! |
| Free Hepatitis A, B, C, and HIV Co-infection Dinner and Educational Presentations For Primary Care Physicians and Providers |
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Understand your patients hepatitis risks, learn when to treat, and where to refer hepatitis positive patients at one of our upcoming FREE dinner presentations with guest speaker Dr. Kenneth Greenberg, D.O., PHRD with Denver Infectious Disease Consultants.
Dinner presentations will offer primary care and infectious disease physicians, nurses, case managers, and direct patient care medical providers an opportunity to learn how to identify the risks to hepatitis, vaccinations for hepatitis A and B, care and disease management for hepatitis C, networking, and informative discussions to have your questions answered.
September 3rd - Grand Junction
6:00 to 8:00 p.m., ll Bistro Restaurant, 400 Main Street
September 9th - Fort Collins
6:00 to 8:00 p.m., Moot House, 2626 South College Avenue
September 16th - Denver
6:00 to 8:00 p.m., Elway's Cherry Creek, 2500 East First Avenue
Special presentation: HIV and hepatitis C "co-infection"
September 17th - Colorado Springs
6:00 to 8:00 p.m., Nosh, 121 South Tejon Street, Suite100
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it is estimated that up to 3.2 million people in the US have ever been infected with hepatitis C, of these cases 85,000 are estimated to be in Colorado.
Reservations are required. To RSVP, please contact Laura Ginnett, Hep C Connection, at (720) 917-3960 or by e-mail at lginnett@hepc-connection.org.
Brought to you by GSK and Hep C Connection |
| Healthcare Issues In Colorado, Make Your Voices Heard |
Dear all -
Hep C Connection, as a member of the Chronic Care Collaborative, is working on a number of public meetings with state legislators throughout Colorado regarding healthcare issues and would like to invite you to participate and speak at one or more of these meetings.
Click here to view the calendar of meetings, times and locations, and the names of the State Legislators that will attend. The principal topics are:
- Long-term Care
- Limited Insurance Coverage
- Preventive and Health Education Program Cuts
- Coverage of Psychiatric Medications
As someone who is active in the healthcare field or is affected by chronic health care issues, it is important for your voice and perspective to be heard by our elected representatives. We invite you to attend or speak at any of these meetings. Preferably, please plan to attend the meeting where your own legislator will be attending, but we realize that isn't always possible with today's busy schedules. And, feel free to forward this to anyone who may have an interest.
Thank you very much!
Nancy
Nancy A. Steinfurth
Executive Director |
| Doctors & Science |
Genes Tied to Gap in Treatment of Hepatitis C: "principal reason for the disparity between the races"....."genetic test based on the finding would be of great interest to patients and physicians" Genetic variation in IL28B predicts hepatitis C treatment-induced viral clearance; for African-Americans, Hispanics, East Asians - (08/15/09) Nature advance online publication 16 August 2009 The standard treatment for infection with the hepatitis C virus is a grueling 48-week course of the antiviral drugs interferon and ribavirin that gives some patients flulike symptoms and severe depression. The treatment varies in its effectiveness, being much more successful in Americans of European descent than in African-Americans. A Duke University team has now uncovered the principal reason for the disparity between the races. It lies not in differing compliance to the treatment or access to health care, as some have assumed, but in genetics. To read the full article, please click here. By NICHOLAS WADE Published: August 16, 2009
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| 2009 AIDS Walk |
The Hep C Connection AIDS Walk Team, with your support, raised $1,165.00! It was a great event with just under 8,000 people attending to support those who have been infected or affected by HIV. Contributions are still accepted until September 4th, so it's not too late to sponsor if you haven't yet. Simply go to www.aidswalkcolorado.org, click the "Donate" tab, enter "Stewart Thomas" as the Team Captain to pull up the "Hep C Connection" Team, click "My Team Page". From here, view the bottom right portion of the screen, you can make a "General Team Donation" or sponsor a specific Team member, it's your choice!
Seventy percent of funds raised from Hep C Connection's team directly supports the Hep C Connection HIV/HCV co-infection education and testing programs, services and resources. We would like to thank our Team, friends, and supporters for their efforts in making this a successful and fun event! For more information contact Stewart Thomas at (720) 917-3970 or by e-mail at sthomas@hepc-connection.org. We look forward to walking with you next year! 
2009 Hep C Connection AIDS Walk Team
Left to right: (top) Edilberto Diaz-Rodriguez, Greg Eicher, Hank Provost, Nereida Corral, and Nancy Steinfurth, Executive Director
(bottom) Shannon Cornelius, and Stewart Thomas |
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Salute to American Veterans Motorcycle Rally & Festival |
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Laura Ginnett and her brother Brad getting ready for the day
The 16th annual Salute to American Veterans Motorcycle Rally and Festival held August 14th through the 17th in Winter Park, Colorado was a great success. The high mountain valley came alive with the sounds of thunder as thousands of motorcycles arrived!
For two decades, the organizers of the Salute to American Veterans Rally and the POW/MIA (Prisoners of War/Missing in Action) Recognition Ride have made it their mission to provide a venue in which patriotic citizens of the United States take the opportunity to honor our true heroes: United States veterans, active duty members of the Armed Forces, POW's and MIA's, and Armed Service men and women killed in action.
Unfortunately, former and current members of the Armed Services are disproportionately affected by hepatitis C. For this very reason Hep C Connection participated in this three-day event, screened and tested 37 attendees for hepatitis C, and offered educational and support information. If you made it to the Rally, or any of the events, we hope you had a wonderful time. We look forward to seeing you next year!
Thank you to Roche Pharmaceuticals for underwriting this event!
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| Volunteer Appreciation Dinner |
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The annual Volunteer Appreciation Dinner was held August 26th at Nancy Steinfurth's home. The evening cook-out was a great opportunity for volunteers, the Hep C Connection Board of Directors, and staff to meet and mingle.
If you are interested in learning more about volunteering, please call Kara Armstrong, HelpLine and Volunteer Coordinator, at (720) 917-3972 or by e-mail at karmstrong@hepc-connection.org.
Left to right: Nancy Steinfurth, Executive Director, Holly Butler and her partner, Scott Meiklejohn, Board Chair, Herb Merrill, Board member, and his wife Mary Merrill, and James Gavin, former Board member |
| Save The Date - 2009 Desserts & Delights |
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| Requesting Your Personal Experiences |
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If you have a personal story that you are willing to share with our monthly e-newsletter readers, we want to hear from you. Stories can include personal experiences from you or someone that you know and support in their endeavor to cope, manage and/ or care for themselves while living with hepatitis C.
The purpose of sharing a story is so that folks can learn from others' experiences. Examples might include; what went into your decision to go through treatment, or to bypass treatment, how treatment effected you during or after, what worked and what didn't, talking with your medical provider, family and friends, etc.
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| Find A Cure Panel - REPEAT |
Hep C Connection is excited to announce an affiliation with Find A Cure Panel where people with hep C can participate in quantitative online research designed specifically for them. For every survey completed by those who register, Find A Cure Panel will donate a minimum of $25 to Hep C Connection.
You can complete the two minute profile, by clicking the logo below:
Please note that the registration profile is only used to send the specific surveys to you. FACP doesn't ask for your street address and has no offline contact with you. If you don't want to give your full name then you can use initials. For example, if you are Robert John Smith, you can sign up as "RJ Smith".
The data provided in actual surveys is completely anonymous. All the clients will see is a 16 digit number like this: 40010-1234567890. They will not know who that respondent is. This is a great way for you to impact the development of future treatment for hep C while supporting Hep C Connection. Check it out! |
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