The Washington State Asian/Pacific Islander (API) Hepatitis B Task Force works to prevent hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, to increase hepatitis B screening and immunization rates, and to reduce complications from HBV infection, through public awareness and education to and with the API community.

A Steering Committee is responsible for the overall direction and work of the Task Force and oversees three working Committees: Community Outreach, Provider, and Teen/Young Adults. The Task Force is supported by the Washington State Department of Health and is a program of WithinReach. It is a network of local, state, and national partners, community based organizations, health care providers, academia, volunteers, and concerned individuals.

Materials available:

1. Asian Pacific Islander Hepatitis B poster: Culturally specific posters that promotes hepatitis B screening. Features a mother and young children from each culture. Size is 12" X 18" Eng/Chinese, Eng/Korean, Eng/Samoan, Eng/Cambodian, Eng/Tagalog, Eng/Laotian. To order please visit: www.hmhbwa.org/forprof/materials/hepb_posters.htm

2. "Can You Tell Which of These Teens has Hepatitis B?" poster: Promotes hepatitis B screening among teens. Size is 11" X 17". To order please visit: www.hmhbwa.org/forprof/materials/requestform.php

3. Bilingual Asian Pacific Islander Hepatitis B posters encouraging screening, vaccination and treatment of hepatitis B are available in Cambodian, Chinese, Korean, Laotian and Vietnamese. To order please visit www.hmhbwa.org/forprof/materials/requestform.php

4. “It Could Be You”: Asian-American Teens and Hepatitis B – A 15 minutes educational video/DVD produced by Asian-American teens on hepatitis B and its impact in the API community. To order please call (206) 830-5156

Successes
Collaboration with multiple community members, organizations, and public and private partners have been essential to our outreach efforts, especially with our recent screening events.

Challenges
Limited staffing and resources prevent the Task Force from being able to successfully assess the impact of our strategies and activities. Also, HBV infection data are not readily available by race and ethnicity.