In The News
HEPATITIS PREVENTION, EDUCATION, TREATMENT & SUPPORT NETWORK OF HAWAI`I
YEAR-TO-DATE REPORT
January 1, 2003 to May 10, 2003
We currently have 64 members on five Islands. There are many more people who think they are members because they receive emails from us since we have hundreds of email #s in Hawai`i. However, only 64 people are actually listed as members at this time. We are doing a mass email soliciting new members now that we have finalized our plan for 2003. We would like to have between 200 and 500 members by the end of this year. We will solicit organizations and associations to join us after we have between 75 and 100 members.
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I. PUBLIC SERVICE & MEDIA ANNOUNCEMENTS - We are creating a Press Release for May 2003 "National Hepatitis Awareness Month" that will Launch #211's new service for people with Hep C. We are currently working with Havinne Anderson, Program Director of Aloha United Way 211, to update their 211 service so they can have current information and resources for people with concerns about Hep C in Hawai`i. Dialing 211 on their phone will get people a trained volunteer 24-Hrs. a day - 7 days a week on their hotline service free from any Island in the State.
We are asking members that have a resource for people concerned about Hepatitis to contact Havinne Anderson, Program Director, so their organization or support group can be listed on AUW #211's data base before the May 2003 press release is sent by us to the media.
Havinne Anderson
Program Director
Aloha United Way 211
200 N. Vineyard Blvd.
Honolulu, HI 97817
Phone: (808)-543-2262
E-mail: havinne@auw.org
Hotline Number Free from any Island in Hawai`i: 211
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II. PUBLIC EDUCATION - We went to Windward Community College, Kaneohe, Oahu, on May 3 from 10am-2pm to help our Health Advocates in that area with their Special Windward Health Fair. The members of Alpha Lambda Theta (Phi Theta Kappa) were sponsoring and organizing a Health Fair at their campus in Kaneohe.
They were very interested in having someone represent us and give information at a table about hepatitis, especially Hep C, at their fair. They believed that this was very important information that their students and community should have access to. Mikki O'Phelan says they have had an interest in Hep C ever since they found out that one of their group members died of Hep C a couple of years ago.
We took Hepatitis C material and talked with a number of people about Hepatitis C at our information table. We talked with a couple of students who are infected with Hepatitis C. We also talked with one young woman was afraid that she may have contracted Hepatitis C from living with her mother who is infected with Hep C. We ensured her that Hepatitis C is not spread by casual contact. It is a blood borne disease and is not spread by coughing, sneezing, kissing, hugging, or sharing food and drinking cups, etc. We also showed her a Home Access Hepatitis C Test Kit that cost $49.95 from the Home Access website: http://www.homeaccess.com/02/02/
She can purchase one of these test kits or can ask her physician to be tested for Hepatitis C if she believes that she needs to be tested. However, it is not likely that she has any need to be tested because she has not shared tooth brushes, nail clippers, razors, or had any blood-to-blood contact exposure with her mother.
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III. COMMUNITY AND PROFESSIONAL PREVENTION EDUCATION
Distribution of Hepatitis Prevention and/or Treatment videos to Treatment and Health Centers
We had 30 copies of "Traces of Blood" a 12-minute Hep C Prevention video that is excellent for staff and patients to view and discuss about ways to help prevent the spread of Hep C and other virus when using injection drugs. Most people are infected with Hep C within the first thirty days of sharing injection drugs. Many people do not realize the importance of washing their hands with soap and water to kill any virus on their hands when they use injection drugs.
We have shown and distributed this video at the Harm Reduction Coalition meeting and to a other organizations in Hawai`i. We also showed it to the Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Provider Coalition and the AIDS Educators Quarterly Meeting on May 2, 2003, and distributed a number of the videos to the organizations that want them at those two meetings.
We have recently found a benefactor to fund making more copies of the video. We have permission from the Producer of the video to make copies and we can distribute them as long as they are not sold. If you or your organization would like to show this to your staff and/or patients, please email us at: HepNetwkOfHi@hotmail.com.
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IV. SUPPORT GROUPS - We are trying to help individuals and orgranizations to start Hepatitis Support Groups in Hawai`i. Currently, we are working with Salvation Army, Kona, HI, to help them start a Hepatitis C support group there. We also have one open Support group on Oahu: HepCats on the fourth Tues. of each month from 7-9 PM at the LIfe Foundation. We also have a closed support group on Oahu that meets twice a month at the Drug Addiction Services of Hawai`i, Inc.
We have created a CD with lots of information about how to start different types of support groups. (There is currently too much information on the CD and I need someone to look at and suggest what we can take out.) This CD also has a dozen websites that list the support groups in each state in the USA. We have people available who can be technical advisors by email and/or phone here in the Islands as well as friends in the mainland who currently run different types of support groups. Hep C support groups are usually small with only 4 to 8 people. Other friends of ours in the mainland have some larger groups. (Lucinda Porter, RN, has one that has about 20 people in Stanford, CA. Carol Craig has some groups that have more than a hundred people in Los Angeles, CA.)
Please contact us immediately if you (or if you know of an organziation) would like to start a Hep Support Group!
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V. STATE LEGISLATION
OUR Senate Hep C Resolution, SCR16, passed on 5/1/03! Thank you for all of your faxes and emails that supported this very important resolution.
PLEASE SEE THIS IMPORTANT HAWAI`I HEPATITIS C RESOLUTION AT:
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/sessioncurrent/bills/scr16_hd1_.htm
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VI. FEDERAL LEGISLATION - Ken Akinaka, MRA, Co-Founder of our Hep Network, will be going to Washington DC from 5/17/03 to 5/20/03 with the National Hepatitis C Advocacy Coalition (NHCAC) which our Network is a member of since Ken is one of their core members. He has gotten the $500/year NHCAC membership fee waived or it will be paid for by someone else since we cannot afford to do so. HepCAN, a member of NHCAC, will also pay for his airfare and hotel to join them on this special trip to see our Legislators about this very important Hepatitis C Bill.
Here are the Senators that are going to be the original co-sponsors. If you know any of our Federal Hawaiian Legislators, please talk with them about cosponsoring and/or supporting this bill.
"HEPATITIS C EPIDEMIC CONTROL AND PREVENTION ACT"
Kennedy and Hutchison -- Lead Cosponsors
Daschle--CoSp
Biden--CoSp
Johnson--CoSp
Smith--CoSp
Jeffords--CoSp
Bingaman--CoSp
Campbell--CoSp
VII. We helped to fax or email to media, churches, and our members a number of special training events, community forums, and resources for professionals and people with Hepatitis C this year:
a) January 13, 2003
Misha Cohen, OMD, L.Ac., announcement of her new free telephone consultation service. Her practice now has an expanded capability for her to provide telephone consultations with HCV patients and their medical practitioners regarding how to most effectively include Asian medicine in their treatment plans.
She has specialized in teaching and treating Hep C and HIV treatment with Asian or Traditional Chinese Medicine for many years. She is known Nationally as one of the experts in her field and she is a co-author of the Hepatitis C Help Book with Robert Gish, MD, from San Francisco (Nationally known expert on the treatment of Hepatitis C).
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b) January 13, 2003
Subject: Computer Give-Away Program
The Beaumont Foundation will be giving out almost $400 million in computer equipment starting in 2003. The grant applications for schools and community organizations will be available on our website beginning January 6, 2003, at www.bmtfoundation.com/grants/. The guidelines explain how we'll be giving out $20 million each in computer equipment to community organizations and to schools in about half the country. Information on individual grants is also online but persons interested in those grants should apply by calling 1-866-505-COMP(2667). Please note that persons with disabilities and those who are homebound because of disability or illness are especially encouraged to apply for these individual grants. Questions about the school and community grants can also be answered on that line. Our focus is on delivering equipment where it will directly benefit underserved citizens. So we do not provide computers for staff.
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c) January 15, 2003
Hepatitis C Caring Ambassadors Program
PRESS RELEASE - The Hepatitis C Caring Ambassadors Program Announces the Release of the Second Edition of a Comprehensive Book on Treatment Choices for People with Chronic Hepatitis C free on the internet
Hepatitis C Choices:
Distinctive Viewpoints on Choices for Your Hepatitis C Journey
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d) January 16, 2003
Special presenter from San Francisco who was speaking about HIV!
Martin Delaney founding president of Project Inform provided an HIV Update for all who were intersted free.
Location: Life Foundation
677 Ala Moana, suite 226
Honolulu, HI 96813
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e) March 6, 2003
TV KGMB with Angela Keen and Dr. Alan Tice
HPETS Network Member Alan Tice, MD, was a live guest and interviewed by Angela Keen at the KGMB-9 Studios on their 5pm news on Thursday.
Angela Keen
Health & Medical Reporter/Anchor
KGMB-9 News Honolulu
(808) 973-9889
Ken Akinaka received a number of phone calls after this newscast special on Hepatitis C since our HPETS Network phone number was posted.
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f) March 31, 2003
Dr. Joanna Buffington, MD
Hepatitis Integration into HIV/AIDS/STD, Substance Abuse, & Correctional Health Programs
Monday, March 31, 2003
1:00-4:00 pm
Central Union Church Social Hall, 1660 S. Bertania St.
Karla Hays, State Hepatitis C Coord., produced this special event. We were able to help advertise it.
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g) April 7, 2003
KZOO, a Japanese radio talk show, on the Hepatitis C and Drug Addiction Services of Hawai`i
Tues. 4/7/03 from 8:15 AM - 8:45 AM
in Manoa Valley Shopping Center.
Ken Akinaka appeared as a special guest.
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h) April 6, 2003
Letter of Support for Eddie for a Liver Transplant
Eddie had to go to UCLA - Kaiser for an evaluation to see if they will allow him to get a liver transplant. It is the closest place that Kaiser has to Hawai`i for liver transplants since they do not do liver transplants in Hawai`i. Eddie has been an active member of our Hep Network.
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i) April 16,2003
COMMUNITY FORUM ON HEPATITIS C
Emmet B.Keeffe, MD
Chronic Hepatitis C: Evolving Strategies
In Diagnosis & Treatment
Dr. Keefe is the Chief of Hepatology and Professor of Medicine At Stanford University Medical Center
Lucinda Porter, RN
Hepatitis C: Living with the Virus And Navigating the Disease
Lucinda Porter, RN is the Clinical Research Coordinator Div. of GI/Hepatology at Stanford University Medical Center
Date and Time:
Wednesday, April 16th
6:00pm light dinner 6:30pm presentations
This special presentation was produced by Ken Thomas, Roche Laboratories.
We were able to help advertise it along with their special training for Nurses on 4/15/03 and
special training for physicians on 4/19/03.
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End of Report
{Not bad for a volunteer organization with no funding!}
