NVHR Welcomes Support of National Hepatitis C Advocacy Council In Fight to Address Chronic Viral Hepatitis

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Phil Blando, 202-534-1772
September 24, 2010 pblando@abmpartnersllc.com


NVHR Welcomes Support of National Hepatitis C Advocacy Council
In Fight to Address Chronic Viral Hepatitis

Washington, DC—The National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable (NVHR) is pleased to welcome the National Hepatitis C Advocacy Council -- the nation’s first community-based hepatitis C advocacy coalition -- to its ranks and looks forward to building on the Council’s hard-fought successes in the public policy arena, NVHR announced today. Given the depth and breadth of NVHR’s reach, the Council will now unite with NVHR and allow the community to speak with one voice.

“NVHR is pleased to have the National Hepatitis C Advocacy Council join our ranks,” said Ms. Lorren Sandt, NVHR Chair and Executive Director of Caring Ambassadors Program, based in Portland, Oregon and the Founder of the Council. “Over the past decade, the Council has done extraordinary work to educate policymakers and the general public about hepatitis C and has laid the foundation for important public policy successes in recent years. We look forward to using the Council’s passion and commitment through NVHR to advance a public health agenda that addresses the viral hepatitis crisis once and for all.”

“For the past decade, the National Hepatitis C Advocacy Council has been steadfast in its efforts to promote a national, comprehensive strategy for addressing hepatitis C. We have been on the front lines in Washington and state capitals and are proud of our results in putting hepatitis C on the political radar screen,” said Michael Carden, National Hepatitis C Advocacy Council President, who is with SUNY Downstate Medical Center, based in Brooklyn, NY. “Now is the time for the community to speak with one voice for the entire spectrum of viral hepatitis.”

The National Hepatitis C Advocacy Council was founded in 2000 and is the nation’s first hepatitis C coalition. Comprised of 27 community-based organizations operating from coast to coast, the Council enabled the hepatitis C community to have a voice on Capitol Hill and urged policymakers to pursue a comprehensive public-health strategy for detecting, treating, and preventing viral hepatitis.

Over the past decade, the Council scored some very notable successes on Capitol Hill. In 2003, at its urging, the first-ever hepatitis C legislation was introduced by the late Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and former Representative Heather Wilson (R-NM) and Representative Edolphus Towns (D-NY). The following year, the Government Oversight Committee, chaired by former Representative Tom Davis (R-Va.), held a congressional hearing to examine policy issues associated with hepatitis C. This work laid an important foundation for introducing a more comprehensive viral hepatitis bill and securing bipartisan legislation in this Congress, sponsored by Representatives Mike Honda (D-Calif.), Charlie Dent (R-Pa.), and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) that has a total of 73 bipartisan supporters.and Senate legislation sponsored by Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.)

An estimated 5.3 million Americans have been infected with chronic viral hepatitis B or C – and with most unaware of their infection, millions are at risk of developing life-threatening complications, especially African Americans and Asian Americans. Without detection and prompt treatment, chronic viral hepatitis leads to liver cancer, cirrhosis, or liver failure.

NVHR is a coalition of more than 170 public, private, and voluntary organizations dedicated to reducing the incidence of infection, morbidity, and mortality from chronic viral hepatitis that afflicts more than 5 million Americans. www.nvhr.org
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