Seminar by Dr. John Ward, CDC Deputy Director
Hepatitis B: Eliminating Infection, Controlling Disease

On April 12, John Ward, M.D., director, Division of Viral Hepatitis at the CDC, spoke about how young adults in the U.S. are the group at greatest risk for hepatitis B; however, they present the greatest vaccine challenge. Dr. Ward believes there is a need for better strategies to reach this group since neither the “opt-in” strategy of targeting high risk adults that can create stigma vs. “opt-out” strategy of targeting an age group that avoids stigma are effective. Another overlooked group is chronically infected pregnant women. Most perinatal programs focus on protecting babies from hepatitis B, but neglect the moms. With the availability of better treatments, however, the CDC wants to help meet the needs of affected people, in addition to promoting prevention and appropriate vaccination against this vaccine-preventable disease.

Bruce Witte Distinguished Lecturer – Dr. John Taylor
Learning from Hepatitis Delta Virus

On March 1, John Taylor, Ph.D., a senior member of Fox Chase Cancer Center, gave the 6th annual Bruce Witte Distinguished Lecture on hepatitis D, a virus that affects 15 million people worldwide (read B Informed, Winter 2006). Dr. Taylor is the preeminent scientist in the field and was the first to clone the HDV viral genome in 1989. He hopes that HDV research may shed valuable light on how the hepatitis B virus enters liver cells, which is still not understood, but could contribute to therapeutic advances. The Witte Lecture was established in 2000 by HBF co-founders Paul and Janine Witte.

BInformed, Summer 2006.