Really cool breakthrough: http://www.medindia.net/news/Scientists-Find-Why-Hepatitis-B-Hits-Men-Harder-Than-Women-61205-1.htm.

This has always been a great interest for me - wondering how the host environment could affect the natural history of a disease like hepatitis. Will read into this more later on and update.

Back to homework!

Back from an exhausting 24 hours on Yale's beautiful campus and an awesome football game. Harvard won 14-10 with a huge comeback in the 4th quarter. All the Harvard kids yelled until their throats were hoarse. Gorgeous weather unlike last year when people worried about hypothermia. Hope everyone made it back to campus okay! Too bad we have school on Monday unlike Yale...

After hearing the Team HBV Collegiate Conference presentation on using Web 2.0 and Social Media to campaign for a cause, I couldn't help searching for models of social media campaigns online. I found this: http://stemcellcharter.org/.

Beautifully crafted website. Very unique and tasteful. I've sent out a few awareness "ecards" myself from that site. Something about personalizing that little cell makes it all so very...personal. And that's what social media should aim to do - make a larger cause very personal to each supporter. Pretty animations also help.

I encourage everyone to sign the charter! You DO NOT have to be Canadian. Yay for stem cell research :).

-jxc

http://www.cartoonistgroup.com/store/add.php?iid=35298#second

Random comic on organ transplantation (involving the liver!). It frustrates me how you have to sign up to be an organ donor in the States or Canada.

Semi-Morbid Question: If I'm an organ donor and I'm Canadian and I die in the States, will they send my organs back to Canada? I hope they use them anyways. It would be sad if it would take too long to get them to Canada, and the States wouldn't have the rights to use them.

READ article: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170894.php

The Use Of Stem Cells In Regenerative Medicine May Be Detrimental For Health

I feel that the saddest thing about this study is not that injecting mononuclear cell fraction of human cord blood onto damaged livers doesn't appear to work, but that we've only just tried it. Hello??? They tried the injection of stem cells onto the heart nearly a decade ago (which actually led to half a decade of debate on what exactly those skeletal pregenitors were doing there). And only in 2009 do they try working with hepatic regeneration. This is highly disturbing because some 17% of the world is affected by liver diseases. I guess it really comes down to what the first world countries want: cardiac regenerationj is a hot topic because it is the first world populations that struggle with chronic heart diseases.

-jxc

It is 1:30 and 36 people, including me, are watching online as people 3 time zones away get together to do group exercises at the conference. Owl city is playing and someone is messing with the video camera. I feel very voyeuristic as I happily play "find people from Harvard"!

Just another Saturday afternoon...

Watch the conference! http://www.eastvillagers.org/hbv_live.php

http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov/MeetingAbstracts/ma?f=102230430.html

Great study that concludes that educating youth creatively does work. Yay Team HBV!

How long does hepatitis B vaccine protection last?

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE5A153S20091102

Update on a previous blog post. It seems that all of these studies conclude that boosters are not required and yet their results suggest that not all of those vaccinated are protected. Perhaps this is the inherent fallacy of public health - we think only of the health of the general public and forget the health of individuals.

Because laughter is the best second best medicine (after a good vaccine).

Happy Veteran's Day everyone :).

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90782/90880/6767455.html

Great story about how people are fighting back in China against hep B carrier discrimination. It makes me so upset with anything keeps people away from secondary education. I really hope that foreign countries can set a good example for China.

Hep B - 3 for life?

http://www.medpagetoday.com/InfectiousDisease/Vaccines/6347

"Hepatitis B Vaccine Protection May Not Be Long-Lasting"

This article is an interesting gateway in to this discussion and into the literature on whether hep B vaccines actually protect someone for life. As some who already knows my 3 shots did not protect me for more than 12 years, I am really concerned about this. I hope that no 20 year old will ever have to realize that they got hep B even though they thought they were vaccinated - it just feels so unfair.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6X_NAI509Y&feature=related

Amazing. British Columbia (in Canda!) really made a push to fight Hep B since its Asian population is so affected. This is a short film in the style of CSI aimed to target preteens and teenagers to tell them about Hep B. The material is great and suitable for any teaching curriculum.

Did I mention that since BC launched it's infant immunization program, results have been DRAMATIC.

Also, Canada seems to be uping its game up in terms of addressing Hep B as a national concern:

http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/01/19/hepatitis-b.html

Maybe it's time that America got competitive again with its neighbor to the North? Step it up, America.

Finding it hard to act on the action alert regarding congressman Mike Honda's viral hepatitis bill? Try using opencongress.com! (Links below).

As a Canadian without a representative (booo), I hope that other people can make up for my inability to contact congressmen by calling/emailing/writing to theirs. Too busy? Don't know who to email/where to send your concerns? SIgn up for opencongress and email your rep directly from there.

What? Viral Hepatitis Bill, H.R. 3974

http://www.hcvadvocate.org/community/Alert_Oct%2030_09.htm

How to help?

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h3974/show

Sign up for an account (really quick) - really great for following all sorts of other bills too.

DO IT for all the concerned international students living in the US who wish that they could call their representatives!

xoxo,

jxc

Go to: http://www.thinktwice.com/hepB_sho.htm

Hepatitis B:
A Special Thinktwice
Powerpoint/Flash Presentation

The flash video starts off harmless enough with some interesting educational facts, but then we move into the anti-vaccine propaganda. It makes me really sad that some parents are seeing this online, and reading this stuff while considering getting their unborn children/infants the vaccine.

Anyone want to play point out the erroneous information? The medical studies seem scary, but they are so old (between 15 to 20 years old).

-jxc