A proclamation recognizing May 19th as “Hepatitis Testing Day” and July 28th as “World Hepatitis Day”.
All right. That brings us to our third proclamation. Councilman Lopez, will you please read Proclamation 572? Thank you, Mr. President. Proclamation 572 Series of 2018 recognizing May 19th as hepatitis testing day and July 28 as World Hepatitis Day. Whereas May 19th is National Hepatitis Testing Day, and July 28th is World Hepatitis C Oversight World Hepatitis Day. Hepatitis C is recognized as the most common blood borne viral infection in the United States, whereas mortality due to hep C is increasing in Colorado, particularly among people born between 1945 and 1965 and over 19,000, hepatitis C related deaths occur annually in the United States. And. WHEREAS, Hepatitis B accounts for almost 2000 annual deaths in the United States, there are currently about 15,436 people living in Colorado with chronic unresolved hepatitis B infection, and fewer than one third of people with chronic hepatitis B are aware of their infection. And. Whereas, Hepatitis B and C cause an estimated 61% of liver cancer. Hepatocellular carcinoma HCC in the U.S. and. WHEREAS, the opioid opioid epidemic is fueling an increase in HPV h. Sorry. HB In HCV positive cases. And. WHEREAS, Hepatitis C has infected an estimated 73,935 Coloradans, as many as 5.2 million American residents, and more than 130 million people worldwide. And is a leading cause of cirrhosis, liver cancer and liver transplants in the U.S.. And. WHEREAS, Hepatitis C can be prevented. Testing can identify existing infections and early diagnosis and treatment can save lives, money and resources. And. WHEREAS, A Liver Health connection is available as a statewide resource for education testing, linkage to care, patient navigation helpline and other support services. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the Council of the City and County of Denver. Section one of the Denver City Council agrees that preventing and treating viral hepatitis as an important public health initiative that will improve the quality of life for Denver residents affected by the virus. Section two The Denver City Council proclaims May 19th as hepatitis testing day and recognizes July 28th as World Hepatitis C, Section three that the clerk of the city and county of Denver shall a test and affix the seal of the city and county of Denver to this proclamation, and that a copy be transmitted to Nancy Steinfurth, executive director of Liver Health Connection. Thank you. Councilman Lopez, your motion to adopt. Thank you, Mr. President. I move that proclamation 572 series of 2018 be adopted. It has been moved and seconded comments by members of council. Councilman Lopez. Thank you, Mr. President. I carry this proclamation every year. One, because I think it's absolutely critical and important that, you know, that this information be out there. And second, because this is something that that's near and dear to my heart. I lost my grandfather in the year 2000. To complications from Hep C, which he was which he got when he was in the Army, and he was hurt in Germany and he had a blood transfusion. And that's where I mean, they didn't test for it, the screen for it. And that's where he was infected. He passed away almost a year and two weeks ago. Oh, not a year. 18 years. Two weeks ago due to complications from that. From cirrhosis and liver cancer. Now have had we had had the medical advances 18 years ago. My grandfather probably still be with me. It's just kind of one of my colleagues was the person that's supposed to carry this at the time. Garcia. And he did. And I said, Well. Would you like to carry on? First thing I thought about was my grandfather said, absolutely. If you can spend more information about this far and wide in our communities, especially boomer baby boomer age. And it is, folks, just to have general awareness I think is absolutely critical. Folks didn't shy away from testing. As a matter of fact, it can save lives. So I wanted to highlight that. I know Nancy will come up and talk a little bit more about the details of some of the activities and the events that's going to happen on May 19. So. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilman Lopez. And thank you for bringing this proclamation forward. Madam Secretary, roll call. Lopez. I knew Ortega, I. Black. Hi. Flynn. I. Gilmore, I. Herndon. Cashen. Hi. Mr. President. Hi, Madam Secretary. Please close the voting and announce the results. Nine Ice nine ICE Proclamation. 572 has been adopted. Councilman Lopez, is there someone you'd like to bring up to the podium to. Receive the proclamation? I would like to invite Nancy Steinfurth, who is the executive director of Liver Health Connection, formerly the hep-C Connection. Thank you very much for this opportunity to speak with you. And I'm really excited that I've been able to get so much support from Denver City Council over many years. So thank you for once again supporting this proclamation. I can't read anything without my glasses. So here we go. We're going to miss Councilman Lopez because he's been such a champion for this cause and for our organization. So I just want to give him a little special recognition because he's been so wonderful and so passionate about the personal effects that this disease has had on him . I know of many, many stories and we could go on for hours, but that is not going to that's that's not going to fly this evening. The nation, Colorado and Denver are in the midst of an opioid crisis. And this crisis is leading to a second epidemic of infectious disease transmission. In fact, it's been called this endemic because hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV are all on the rise as a result of shared syringes among injecting populations. At the same time, as the community is responding to the opioid epidemic, we are still working to find baby boomers with undiagnosed hepatitis C, for example. We also go to the VA center. One of my staff members, RECA goes and tests there, so she's going to bring some dog food and some other goodies for you guys to have for this Saturday. Homeless veterans are one of the really hard to reach populations. And so excuse me, the VA and our organization is working to partner and collaborate with groups to figure out where we can locate those folks and link them to care. These baby boomers have had the disease for a longer time period, and it's now leading to serious consequences like liver failure, transplantation and liver cancer. In 2017, Liver Health Connection was able to provide almost 3000 hepatitis C antibody tests at homeless shelters, community correction programs, methadone clinics, pride fest, and many more events. Every person with a positive test result is provided active navigation through all of the steps in the process so that no one is designed denied access to a cure. I'm happy to say that the Colorado Department of Corrections will begin providing hepatitis treatment to almost 700 offenders per year beginning July one. That was a $16.5 million increase to their appropriation, and it was earmarked only for hepatitis C. So that's a big deal with our state budget. It's pretty tough. We work with over 100 local partners, including Denver Public Health, National and Worldwide Partners, to find the missing hepatitis B and hepatitis C millions. We thank thank you for your commitment to support this important cause and hope you can join us at 10 a.m., May 19th in Confluence Park, where we're going to be testing anyone and everyone for hepatitis C runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.. And we would love to have you stop by now. Granted, perhaps someone from the marathon could come over. Swing by. We're going to word have some water. We might have some snacks. It's a beautiful area. I love the park. So that's one reason to come on by as well as testing. And and we're going to we're going to be there for most of the day. Thank you so much. Thanks. Thank you very much. All right. That concludes our proclamations. We're moving on to resolutions. Madam Secretary, please read the resolutions.