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NYU School of Medicine
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City Council Awards Grant to NYC Asian American Hepatitis B Project

NEW YORK, December 15, 2004 -- The NYC Asian American Hepatitis B Project received a $1.6 million grant from the New York City Council for the first year of a project to educate, vaccinate, and treat Asian American New Yorkers for hepatitis B. Chronic infection with this virus is a serious health problem in the large Asian American community in the city because Asians are infected are at a much higher rate--as much as 10-fold higher--than the general population.

The Asian American Hepatitis B Project is a community-based initiative whose members include the New York University School of Medicine Center for the Study of the Asian American Health, the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC and its South Manhattan Network), the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Charles B. Wang Community Health Center, and other healthcare organizations in the Chinese and Korean communities.

“We hope to reduce the enormous health disparity of hepatitis B in the Asian American community,” says Mariano Rey, M.D., Director of the Centers for Health Disparities Research at NYU School of Medicine. “This is a very comprehensive program that reaches out into the community, and which will focus on screening entire families at one time. We hope that this approach will save lives," says Dr. Rey, who is also Administrative Principal Investigator for the Center for the Study of Asian American Health.

The Center for the Study of Asian American Health is part of the Centers for Health Disparities Research at NYU School of Medicine. The Centers provide investigators with the academic and community resources to study the specific health needs of underserved minority populations.

Chronic infection with hepatitis B is the leading cause of liver cancer worldwide, and without treatment or monitoring one out of four people who carry the virus will eventually die of liver failure or liver cancer. It is estimated that about 300 million to 350 million people worldwide are chronically infected. Most of these people are Asian.

Over 800,000 Asians and Pacific Islanders live in New York City, and many are recent immigrants from countries where hepatitis B is endemic. During the first year of the NYC Hepatitis B Project, investigators hope that at least 5000 Asian Americans will be screened. The project is expected to be funded for five years.

Hepatitis B can be transmitted through unprotected sexual intercourse, sharing of needles, contact with infected blood, or from mother to child at birth. There is an effective vaccine, which will prevent infection, and treatments are available for people who are chronically infected, but the virus can remain dormant for decades without causing symptoms. Consequently, many people do not realize they are infected and do not seek treatment.

A Pediatric Hepatitis Clinic at Bellevue, directed by Henry Pollack, M.D., Associate Professor of Pediatrics at NYU School of Medicine and a principal investigator for the Project, has for many years provided hepatitis B screening for children. The Project’s other principal investigators are: Alex Sherman, M.D., Clinical Professor; Hillel Tobias, M.D., Clinical Professor; and Thomas Tsang, M.D., Clinical Instructor, all from NYU School of Medicine.

Few programs have been targeted at the entire family. Because the virus often spreads within households, the Hepatitis B Project will place special emphasis on family screening. A Family Liver Center at the NYU-affiliated Bellevue Hospital will soon open where parents, children, and grandparents can be screened together. Family members who are not infected can be vaccinated, while those who do harbor the virus can be treated.

In addition to Bellevue Hospital, comprehensive hepatitis care will be provided at the Charles B. Wang Community Health Center’s locations in Chinatown and Flushing, and Gouverneur Healthcare Services. Finally, over two dozen community organizations and health advocacy groups will provide support for the NYC Asian American Hepatitis B Project.

“We used the resources that were available to us to create a strong community-based initiative for this large-scale project," says Dr. Rey. "We are extremely grateful to Alan Gerson, the NYC Council member for Chinatown, who came up with the idea for this citywide project, and who spearheaded the effort to successfully secure funding for it from the city budget.”

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