Right now the House of Representatives is deciding how much funding to give to viral hepatitis in 2012 and you can make a difference!

Representatives Henry C. “Hank” Johnson, Jr. (D-GA) and Judy Chu (D-CA) are asking their fellow Representatives to sign on to the attached letter asking for an increase in funding for the CDC Division of Viral Hepatitis. Additional funding is needed to ensure that the new Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Action Plan for the Prevention and Treatment of Viral Hepatitis can be implemented.

Whether your Member is Republican or Democrat, they will listen to you as their constituent. We need as many Representatives as possible to sign on to this letter to increase hepatitis funding. You can help make this happen by making an important phone call right now!

How you can make a difference:

Call the Capitol Switchboard toll-free at 1-888-876-6242 and ask to be connected to your U.S. Representative. When you are connected, ask for the staff person who handles health care issues. Whether you speak directly to the staff person or leave a message, tell him/her:

“My name is _____________ and I live in (city/state). I am calling to urge Representative _____________ to sign on to Representative Hank Johnson and Judy Chu’s Viral Hepatitis funding letter by tomorrow, May 18th to support the fight against viral hepatitis in the United States. Please contact Scott Goldstein in Congressman Johnson’s office for more information and to sign on. In the next 10 years, about 150,000 people in the United States are projected to die from liver cancer and liver disease associated with chronic hepatitis B and C. I strongly urge your office to sign on to this important letter given that HHS just released an Action Plan that will improve the federal government’ response, and show your commitment to fighting these preventable diseases.”

You can also ask the staff person for his/her email address and forward the attached “Dear Colleague” letter with more information about the sign on letter.

Thank you for taking the time to make a difference!

This Action Alert was created by the Hepatitis Appropriations Partnership. The Dear Colleague letter is attached and below.

Support Funding for CDC Viral Hepatitis Prevention

From: The Honorable Henry C. "Hank" Johnson, Jr.
Sent By: scott.goldstein@mail.house.gov
Date: 5/17/2011

Deadline: May 18th

Current signers: Christensen, Lewis (GA), Richardson (CA), Speier, Wu, Frank (MA), Towns, Rangel, Green, Holmes Norton, Schakowsky, Kucinich, Grijalva, Clarke
 

Dear Colleague:

Please join us in urging strong support for the President’s increase of $5.2 million for a total of $25 million for the Division of Viral Hepatitis (DVH) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the FY2012 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations bill. Despite the economic climate, this small increase in preventing viral hepatitis – a disease state which presents a dramatic public health inequity – will go a long way in bending the cost curve associated with these burgeoning epidemics and will save lives for the estimated 5.4 million people in the U.S. living with this silent killer where as many as 75 percent are unaware of infection.  We have the tools to prevent liver cancer with a hepatitis B vaccine and effective hepatitis B treatments that reduce disease progression, and new treatments that increase hepatitis C cure rates by up to 75 percent.  However, without adequate funding, we cannot identify the three-fourths of those unaware of their infection and place them into care, and cannot stop liver cancer in its tracks.

Please join us in sending the following letter to the Appropriations Committee asking for their commitment to increase viral hepatitis prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We need you to not only sign this letter but to make a request for CDC viral hepatitis funding as part of your FY2012 priority requests submitted to the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor-HHS-Education. If you would like to sign the letter, or have any questions, please contact Scott Goldstein (scott.goldstein@mail.house.gov or 5-1560) with Rep. Johnson’s office or Lelaine Bigelow (Lelaine.bigelow@mail.house.gov or 5-5464) in Rep. Chu’s office.  The deadline to sign the letter is May 18th. 

Sincerely,

Congressman Hank Johnson

Congresswoman Judy Chu

 --- 

The Honorable Harold Rogers
Chairman
Committee on Appropriations
United States House
Washington, D.C., 20515

The Honorable Denny Rehberg
Chairman
Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services
United States House
Washington, D.C., 20515
 

The Honorable Norm Dicks
Ranking Member
Committee on Appropriations
United State House
Washington, D.C. 20515

The Honorable Rosa DeLauro
Ranking Member
Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services
United States House
Washington, D.C., 20515

SUBJECT:  FY2012 CDC Viral Hepatitis Prevention Program Funding

Dear Chairmen Rogers and Rehberg, and Ranking Members Dicks and DeLauro:

We write to respectfully request that you provide the President’s proposed FY2012 increase of $5.2 million for a total of $25 million for the Division of Viral Hepatitis (DVH) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  We have a roadmap of how to federally invest in the most strategic way to combat these epidemics from the Division’s Professional Judgment budget (PJ), the Institute of Medicine’s viral hepatitis report and the upcoming HHS Viral Hepatitis Action Plan. Adequate and sustained funding is needed to realize the Division’s goals of a national testing, education and surveillance initiative as prioritized in the Division’s PJ.  The current funding level of $19.8 million does not allow for the provision of core prevention services, which are desperately needed to control the epidemic and the escalating medical costs as the millions of patients with this undiagnosed chronic disease get sicker and require more costly care and liver transplantation.

Liver cancer, one of the most lethal, expensive and fastest growing cancers in America, is primarily caused by viral hepatitis such as hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis C (HCV). Nearly 5.4 million people in the U.S. are infected with viral hepatitis – roughly six times the number with HIV – and 65-75 percent are not aware of their infections.  Viral hepatitis kills 15,000 people each year and is the leading cause of death in people living with HIV - nearly 25 percent of HIV-positive persons are also infected with HCV and nearly 10 percent with HBV. 

These epidemics are particularly alarming given the rising rates of new infections and high rates of chronic infection among disproportionately impacted racial and ethnic populations and present a dramatic public health inequity.  For example, HCV is twice as prevalent among African Americans as among Caucasians. Asian Americans comprise more than half of the known hepatitis B population in the United States and consequently maintain the highest rate of liver cancer among all ethnic groups. Additionally, African American and Hispanic patients are less likely to be tested for HCV in the presence of a known risk factor, less likely to be referred to treatment for subspecialty care and treatment, and less likely to receive antiviral treatment. 

We appreciate the Committee’s past support for viral hepatitis prevention and strongly encourage you to sustain your commitment this year.  Especially given that we have the tools to prevent the major causes of liver cancer: a hepatitis B vaccine and effective treatments that reduce disease progression, and new treatments that increase HCV cure rates up to 75 percent.  Making this relatively modest investment in the prevention and detection of viral hepatitis represents a key component in addressing a vital public health inequity and will get more patients into care, strengthen our public health infrastructure and combat the devastating and expensive complications caused by viral hepatitis.

Sincerely,