Following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s decision to end its policy on hepatitis B vaccinations at birth, the Hepatitis B Foundation has begun a public awareness campaign, writes John George for the Philadelphia Business Journal.
The Doylestown-based company is the only nonprofit in the world devoted to researching and informing the public about hepatitis B.
“We’ve already started working on our next steps,” said Chari Cohen, the president of the organization. “Some of it is awareness and education, some of it is advocacy.”
The nonprofit has begun to post educational materials about the disease and the vaccine on its social media platforms.
They’ve also begun to create fact sheets and slide sets to provide pediatricians and community leaders with educational resources.
The hepatitis B virus can cause chronic infection, which can result in liver cancer. According to the World Health Organization, over 250 million people around the world have hepatitis B infections.
The Hepatitis B Foundation has made changes to its organization in order to prioritize the campaign.
“We have had to take resources and staff away from other programs to fight for this because it’s so incredibly important,” she said. “Doing this is certainly not easy for a small, underfunded nonprofit organization working on shoestrings.”
Read more about how Doylestown’s Hepatitis B Foundation is responding to the CDC’s change in policy in the Philadelphia Business Journal.
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