Friday, March 14, 2008

Georgia Hepatitis C Handbook announcement!

The Hep C Working Group of Georgia, a coalition of agencies dedicated to battling hepatitis C in Georgia, is extremely pleased to announce that the Second Edition of the Hep C Handbook, a publication written and designed expressly for Georgians living with hepatitis C, as well as professionals who work with Georgia’s Hep C patients, is hot off the press and available now. The first edition was published in 2005 and it proved to be an invaluable resource to Georgians and those in the surrounding states who were battling hepatitis C. There have been many changes since 2005 and the time was right for an updated handbook to help those who needed it. While not a substitute for qualified medical care from a licensed physician, the Hep C Handbook contains extensive information to aid those affected by hepatitis C including physician referrals, physical and mental heath, legal resources, treatment options, transplant and financial resources information as well as many other areas of information, all available to citizens of Georgia. This project was a labor of love for the organizations involved in developing this up-to-date informational resource. The Georgia Division of Public Health, the American Liver Foundation, Atlanta Harm Reduction Center, H.E.A.L.S. of the South, as well as our dedicated physicians and committee members all made this dream a reality and it is through our collective effort that the second edition of this book has come to fruition.


Appreciation goes out to those companies and organizations providing funding for printing costs making the Hep C Handbook possible. Lead supporters were Roche Laboratories, Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Vertex and GlaxoSmithKline. Through their generosity we were able to print 15,000 copies of the handbook and we cannot express our appreciation enough for their kindness.


In addition to the handbook being in print form it is also available in PDF format on the American Liver Foundation website at:
www.liverfoundation.org/chapters/georgia

and the H.E.A.L.S of the South website at:
http://www.healsofthesouth.org/Hep_C_Handbook.html

If you are interested in receiving these books for yourself or others who are in need, please contact:

Katherine C. Cline
Executive Director
American Liver Foundation
2250 North Druid Hills Road, Suite 285
Atlanta, GA 30329
telephone: 404-633-9169
www.liverfoundation.org/chapters/georgia

OR

Tina J. Benoit, MPH
Hepatitis C Coordinator & Surveillance
Georgia Division of Public Health/Notifiable Disease Epidemiology Section
2 Peachtree Street, NW 14-264
Atlanta, GA 30303
(404) 463- 0849 (Phone)
(404) 657- 2608 (Fax)tbenoit@dhr.state.ga.us