Will You B Here? Raising Hepatitis B Awareness

A year or so ago, we had a post about Hepatitis B and how it disproportionately affects Asian Americans. For those who don’t already know, Hep B is a disease that attacks the liver without many noticeable symptoms leading many to dub it as the “silent killer” because those who could be infected rarely get tested for it to be diagnosed.  Hep B leads to complications with the liver, in forms of liver cancer and liver failure, and could very much lead to death.

Hepb.org claims that over 12 million people in the United States have Hepatitis B and that it has an infection rate of 100,000 a year.  An estimated 2 million people have chronic Hepatitis B in the United States and over half of those are of Asian decent.  For that very reason, the B Here Campaign is trying to raise awareness on Hep B and it effects on the Asian American community.  Recruiting many Asian American artists and performers, the B Here Campaign is bringing the likes of David Choi, KevJumba, AJ Rafael, Kaba Modern, Paul Dateh and others to UC Irvine, UC Davis, and the University of Houston to the spread the word.  The performance and exhibit at UC Irvine will actually be tomorrow night, (they’ll visit Houston on the 13th and Davis on the 27th) so make sure you head on out! Visit willyoubhere.com for more info.