Get informed about Hepatitis B!

The Lao Assistance Center has been advocating for several years for Lao to inform themselves about Hepatitis B. This is a very serious cause for our community, but one for which we have little data related to Lao and other Southeast Asians in Minnesota.

National data from the 1980s to the early 1990s indicates about 1 in 10 new immigrants from Southeast Asia had chronic hepatitis B infection, with some communities having rates nearly as high as 20%. Hepatitis B has remained a serous problem in adult immigrants from Southeast Asia due to the lack of awareness, education, testing, and prevention.

Census 2000 data shows that a large fraction of Lao Minnesotans will soon be entering their 30s-40s-50s in the next few years. In these age groups, diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment for Hepatitis B will be important to prevent deaths and liver disease from chronic Hepatitis B.

Many healthcare providers and policy makers seem to incorrectly assume there are active and effective hepatitis surveillance programs in place; unfortunately, in reality, it is clear many adult immigrants from high risk countries are not following the recommendations for hepatitis B prevention, screening, diagnosis, or treatment. Please take the time to understand more about this disease!