School of Nursing New Partnership with SF Hep B Free

The School of Nursing is proud to announce its new partnership with the non-profit public health initiative, SF Hep B Free. 

Earlier this year, Larry Vitale (School of Nursing Senior Lecturer), Kristine Tulio (GMSN Level 7), and Simi Sohal (GMSN Level 7) collaborated with SF Hep B Free's Executive Director, Arcadi Kolchak, to establish the Hepatitis B Community Ambassador Program at SF State. 

The mission of this student-based program is to increase hepatitis B outreach to underserved Asian Pacific Islander immigrant workers in the pockets of San Francisco and aid in the implementation of SF Hep B Free’s Business Initiative. The new and innovative Business Initiative encourages businesses in San Francisco to promote employee and community wellness around hepatitis B and liver cancer.

Why hep B in San Francisco? Hepatitis B strongly impacts our local Asian Pacific Islander (API) community. 1 in 10 APIs is infected with chronic hepatitis B versus 1 in 1000 in the general population. Notably, San Francisco has the highest rate of hepatitis B and liver cancer in the country.

San Francisco State nursing student volunteers from both the main campus and satellite campus will carry out true public health nursing and grassroots community outreach. This involves facilitating hepatitis B education and screening the workers at the businesses.

Over the summer, 15 BSN and MSN students were trained about how to best facilitate hepatitis B community outreach by Larry Vitale and SF Hep B Free's Governance Council, including Dr. Stuart Fong of San Francisco's Chinese Hospital.

On September 14, SF Hep B Free held a press conference at JINS Eyewear in Union Square-San Francisco to announce the partnership between SF State School of Nursing and other local business to implement the Business Initiative. Kristine Tulio spoke on behalf of Larry Vitale and the School of Nursing. 

For more information, please visit SF Hep B Free.