Two Stanford School of Medicine students are hoping to make San Jose free of hepatitis B.
Recognizing that hepatitis B was the most underserved health care need at the Stanford student-run Pacific Free Clinic, Steven Lin and Elizabeth Chao came up with the idea of creating the Hep B Free Clinic last year. Both have family members infected with the disease.
Thanks to a U.S. Albert Schweitzer Fellowship, the two were able to open up the clinic, which, since July, has screened approximately 500 people, many with little to no income, no health insurance and low English ability. The clinic, run by over 45 volunteers, is well on its way to accomplishing its goal of screening 1,000 people by the end of the year. Located at Overfelt High School at 1835 Cunningham Avenue, it is open every Saturday from 10 a.m.–2 p.m.
“We’ve had a few patients come in on their own, very tentative, and after getting screened, they return the next week and bring their whole extended family to get tested,” Chao said. “I think that says a lot about what we’re doing — that our patients trust us and are happy with their care.
San Jose is home to the largest Vietnamese population in the country, and while nationally one in 10 Asians are likely to have hepatitis B, one in eight Vietnamese are affected.
The clinic typically draws 10 to 20 people each session and provides the following free services: access to culturally and linguistically appropriate education, blood tests for screening and routine monitoring of chronic carriers, vaccinations, liver exams, ultrasounds, referrals for triphasic CT scans and assistance with obtaining antiviral medications.
Approximately 20 percent of the clinic’s patients are chronically infected, which is about double the nationwide infection rate, according to Lin.
Chao called the S.F. Hep B Free campaign “a great inspiration for us — it gave us an enormous amount of momentum to get our clinic started. Like the S.F. and Santa Clara Hep B Free campaigns, we want to be a good model for other cities nationwide to look at.”
For info about the San Jose Hep B Free Clinic:
hepbclinic.blogspot.com. For more about the S.F. Hep B Free campaign: sfhepbfree.org or
thuynh@awfoundation.com.