BIRMINGHAM, AL — The UAB Liver Center has announced plans to launch a broad campaign against viral hepatitis, the leading cause of liver disease in Alabama. The initiative will kick off with a fundraising dinner February 16 at the Wynfrey Hotel at the Riverchase Galleria featuring former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean, who chaired the 9/11 Commission. Kean, retired as president of Drew University, now chairs the board of trustees of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, whose philanthropic priorities include the improvement of health care for all Americans.

Information and tickets to the dinner, which will benefit the UAB Viral Hepatitis Support Fund, are available by calling (205) 975-5602.

Joseph Bloomer, M.D., professor of medicine and director of the UAB Liver Center, said that one form of the viral disease, Hepatitis C, afflicts 80,000 in this state alone. “We have seen inroads against some other types of viral hepatitis, but Hepatitis C is expected to remain a major health care problem for another 20 years,” Bloomer said. “Many people from all walks of life have Hepatitis C due to receiving blood donations prior to 1992, when blood banks started screening for this disease.”

He pointed out that Hepatitis C is the leading cause of liver transplantation, accounting for nearly one-third of all liver transplants; and that, for unknown reasons, African-Americans are particularly susceptible to this disease, being twice as likely as Caucasians to become infected.

“But this is a battle against all viral hepatitis, an attempt to raise public awareness of the need to be vaccinated against A and B, and to continue to work toward a prevention and better treatments for Hepatitis C,” he said.

Backers of the Viral Hepatitis Support Fund include Hepatitis B patient Rosie Butler of Hoover, who said, “We thank UAB’s Liver Center for taking the leadership in filling the great need for public education and services in Alabama about viral hepatitis and liver disease. We are excited about the opportunity to marshal Alabama resources and keep them here in Alabama, where the resources will support UAB liver specialists and scientists and — most importantly — the patients and their families.”

Bloomer said priorities of the Viral Hepatitis Support Fund include:

• a nurse to manage patients in clinical trials of a “promising new treatment;”
  
  
• a stipend to support a Fellow in the UAB Liver Center;
  
  
• an education program for newly diagnosed patients and their families;
  
  
• outreach aimed a preventing the spread of viral hepatitis in children and teens;
  
  
• Acquisition of new technologies to assist laboratory researchers.

The UAB Liver Center was established 10 years ago, according to Michael Fallon, M.D., professor and chief of the hepatology section. “Increased use of vaccines, improved blood donation screening and other preventive measures have helped decrease the incidence of acute viral hepatitis by half in the past 25 years,” he said. “However, the number of Americans who die from chronic viral hepatitis is expected to double to 30,000 in 20 years largely due to the bubble of people who received contaminated blood products before Hepatitis C was included in screening.”

An effective treatment for Hepatitis C is available, “but these patients require constant counseling and medical management to help them cope with its very severe side effects,” according to Aasim Sheikh, M.D., assistant professor, who directs UAB’s large clinic for people with the disease. “We have become much like cancer doctors, who must pay very close attention to the side effects of chemotherapy and encourage patients to complete the treatment if possible.”

Sheikh’s clinical research program involves eight industry-sponsored trials of therapy for Hepatitis C, including collaborations with UAB kidney and transplant specialists.

The Liver Center faculty also includes Brendan M. McGuire, M.D., Miguel R. Arguedas, M.D., and Gary Abrams, M.D., associate professors of medicine; and Steven J. King, M.D., assistant professor.

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  Image Size: 600 pixels by 822 pixels (2.0" by 2.7") Resolution: 300 dpi Format: JPEG (RGB) File Size: 506 KB Download Now! Caption: The UAB Liver Center has announced plans to launch a broad campaign against viral hepatitis, the leading cause of liver disease in Alabama. The initiative will kick off with a fundraising dinner Feb. 16 at the Wynfrey Hotel at the Riverchase Galleria featuring former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean (pictured), who chaired the 9/11 Commission.

  Image Size: 747 pixels by 699 pixels (2.5" by 2.3") Resolution: 300 dpi Format: JPEG (RGB) File Size: 380 KB Download Now! Caption: Joseph Bloomer, M.D. (pictured), professor of medicine and director of the UAB Liver Center, said that one form of the viral disease, Hepatitis C, afflicts 80,000 in this state alone.