Doylestown's Hep B Foundation Gets Congressional Funds For Public Health Center

DOYLESTOWN, PA — The Doylestown-based Hepatitis B Foundation will receive a high volume of funding to create a Center of Public Health Excellence.

Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick announced last week that the Hepatitis B Foundation will receive $475,000 to establish the center. It will provide expert resources, training, and technical assistance on how to prevent, treat, and control hepatitis B.

The center's work could aid health departments, social service organizations, and community-based health providers on how to best prevent, treat, and control hepatitis B and increase the rate of adult vaccination and testing for hepatitis B.

The center hopes to facilitate public health infrastructure to decrease heath disparities and improve health access and outcomes in underserved, disparately impacted communities of color.

The Center of Public Health Excellence was one of nine community projects that Fitzpatrick secured $6.5 million total in funding for in the Fiscal Year 2022 Omnibus Appropriations Act, which has now passed both the House and the Senate.

“We greatly appreciate Congressman Fitzpatrick’s leadership and help in securing this essential funding,” said Chari Cohen, DrPH, MPH, senior vice president of the Hepatitis B Foundation. “Our center is an exciting new initiative that will serve people living with hepatitis B, their families, health care providers and the public health community here in Pennsylvania and eventually nationwide.”

At least 50,000 Pennsylvanians are currently living with chronic hepatitis B, only 10 to 15 percent have been diagnosed, and only 50 percent of those diagnosed access sustainable medical care. This epidemic primarily impacts underserved communities of color and left untreated, one in four chronically infected individuals will die prematurely of liver cancer or cirrhosis, according to the foundation.

The addiction crisis has severely exacerbated this problem, and rates of acute hepatitis B have increased more than 150 percent in Pennsylvania, according to the news release.

"There is therefore an urgent need for the creation of a Center of Public Health Excellence focused on hepatitis B elimination," the center detailed.

The Hepatitis B Foundation's program will build critical strategic public health infrastructure and partnerships in Pennsylvania, to be leveraged and modeled for expansion as a national program. The initiative will help the foundation meet the Department of Health and Human Services goal to eliminate hepatitis B in the United States by 2030.

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