San Francisco Hep B Free: A citywide collaboration to eliminate the transmission of hepatitis B through testing, vaccination and treatment of API residents

The San Francisco Hep B Free campaign is the largest coordinated effort in the nation working toward the elimination of hepatitis B in its API population. The campaign was sparked in Nov. 2006 when the Board of Supervisors passed a resolution calling for the testing, vaccination and referral into care of all API residents. In response, the Department of Public Health, the Asian Liver Center, and AsianWeek Foundation initiated the development of an infrastructure for addressing hepatitis B and its resultant diseases. April 2007 saw the official launch of the Hep B Free campaign attended by 450 people representing 150 diverse organizations. Without any designated funding, this campaign has galvanized dozens of public and private organizations including hospitals, HMOs , universities, community health centers, CBOs, news agencies, foundations, pharmaceutical companies, and elected officials. San Francisco has the highest density of Asian Americans (34%) and the highest rate of liver cancer in the nation. These facts caused Mayor Gavin Newsom to call for San Francisco to serve as a model to the rest of the country in creating an effective response to a major local public health concern. The strategies developed to address this disparity include the creation of public access, low-cost testing and vaccination sites, educational opportunities for primary care clinicians, grass roots outreach and education for the various API communities and a broad scale public awareness campaign. It is currently a work in process.