MEDIA
ADVISORYContact: Angela Pang, (415) 691- 7264 apang@asianweek.com
Hep B Affects 1 in 10 APIs,
- Get Screened at the Pistahan Parade and Festival
This Weekend! -
SAN FRANCISCO -- One in ten people in the Asian and Pacific Islander community
are diagnosed with Hepatitis B, which causes 80% of all liver cancer. At this
year's Pistahan Parade and Festival Health Pavilion, San Francisco Hep B Free is outreaching to the Filipino community and encouraging them to stop by their booth to get tested for free and
help prevent liver cancer!
APIs are 100 times more likely to have chronic hepatitis B
than Caucasians and have the highest rate of liver cancer for any racial/ethnic
group. Hepatitis B can cause serious illness that may last for months and can
become a chronic illness with increased risk of liver damage and liver cancer.
Hepatitis B can potentially lead to liver failure and death but is preventable
with a simple vaccine series.
Free screenings will be provided on site both days of the
festival which takes place at Yerba Buena Gardens from 11am to 5pm on Saturday Aug. 14 and Sunday Aug. 15. Screenings are provided by California
Pacific Medical Center, a partner of San Francisco Hep B Free - a citywide
effort to raise awareness and to also provide free or low-cost testing and
vaccination.
Everyone who gets screened and fills out a short survey will automatically be entered in a free
drawing to win a Flip Cam, sponsored by Subaru of America, Inc. - a proud partner and official
vehicle of SF Hep B Free. Other partners and members of the SF Hep Free Campaign,
including the AsianWeek Foundation and SF Hepatitis B Collaborative at UC
Berkeley, will also be on hand to answer any general questions the community
may have about the disease.
API residents make up about 34% of the
city's population and bear a disproportionate instance of liver cancer and
undetected HBV infection.
"Providing free testing at the Pistahan Parade and
Festival is a great opportunity for us to screen and educate the Filipino
community about hepatitis B. If left untreated, Hep B can cause liver cancer,"
says Paula Lykins, Community Relations Manager for California Pacific Medical
Center. "We encourage people to stop by our booth to get tested and learn
more about the disease."
 The San Francisco Hep B Free Campaign will also be appearing
in the Pistahan Parade on Saturday August 14 at 11am. Assemblywoman Fiona Ma will be
riding in the Subaru "Hep B Mobile," a specially-wrapped Subaru Legacy, which serves as a traveling billboard
to direct the public to the website sfhepbfree.org and encourages
people to "See a Doctor Who Tests for Hep B."
The
Pistahan Parade features
beautifully themed floats and more than one hundred colorful and entertaining
contingents. The parade will begin at Beale St., march down Market
Street, left on 4th Street, left on Folsom Street and end on 3rd St.
WHERE: Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco, Mission St. between 3rd and 4th Streets
WHEN: Saturday and Sunday, Aug 14-15, 2010
11 a.m. - 5 p.m.
MEDIA RSVP: Angela Pang, AsianWeek Foundation,
(415) 691- 7264 or apang@asianweek.com.
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About San Francisco Hep B Free:
San Francisco
Hep B Free is a first-of-its-kind collaboration between city
government, private
healthcare community organizations and businesses. The campaign's goal
is to make San Francisco hepatitis B-free by (1) creating public and
healthcare provider awareness about the importance of testing &
vaccinating Asian and Pacific Islanders for hepatitis B; (2) promoting
routine hepatitis B screenings and vaccinations within the primary care
medical community; and (3) facilitating access to treatment for
chronically infected individuals. For more info, please go to www.sfhepbfree.org
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