Hepatitis B Infection in Asian Americans

One out of ten Asian and Pacific Islander Americans (API) have chronic 
Hepatitis B infection. Most of them have no symptom and do not know they 
are infected. One of every four Hepatitis B carriers will eventually die of 
either liver cancer or liver failure.


If you are an Asian or Pacific Islander America, you should do the following:

1) Have Hepatitis B screening blood test done if you do not know your 
status.

2) If you are Hepatitis B negative, you should consider immunization against 
the disease especially if there are young children in the household.

3) If you are a Hepatitis B carrier, you should ask for professional advice 
from your family physician or liver specialist. The risk of liver cancer starts 
to increase at age 30.

4) Get more information on the subject from the Asian Liver Center at 
Stanford University. Telephone them at 510-72LIVER or visit their web site 
at http://liver.stanford.edu.