A proclamation recognizing May 19th as “Hepatitis Testing Day” and July 28th as “World Hepatitis Day”.
Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, money also take just a moment to to recognize Pat nating Armin in the audience who who lost her husband in 1971. Thank you. And she is now vice president of the Denver Police Museum. Thank you, Councilman Flynn. We have another proclamation this evening. Councilman Lopez, will you please read Proclamation 545? Thank you, Mr. President. Yes. Proclamation 545 Series of 2017 recognizing May 19th as hepatitis testing day in July 28 as World Hepatitis Day, whereas May 19th as National Hepatitis Testing Day in July 28th is World Hepatitis Day. Hepatitis C is recognized as the most common blood borne viral infection in the United States. And. Whereas, Hepatitis C has infected an estimated 70,000 Coloradans, as many as 3.5 million American residents, nearly one in 50 persons in more than 130 million people worldwide. And it is the leading cause of cirrhosis, liver cancer and liver transplants. Transplants in the United States. Excuse me. And. Whereas, as many as 20,000 hepatitis hepatitis C related deaths occur annually in the United States, these rates are expected to peak between the years 2030 and 2035 at 36,000 deaths per year. Make me hepatitis C, one of the top preventable causes of death. And when I ask people born between 1945 and 1965 are five times more likely to be infected than other adults. More than 75% of all people with hep C in the United States are people in this age range and are largely unaware of the condition due to any lack of signs, symptoms and testing. Beating Hepatitis C to be labeled as, quote unquote, the silent epidemic. And. WHEREAS, Hepatitis C disproportionately affects people of color and the majority of individuals with the infection can be cured of the virus through the advent of an effective treatment options currently available on the market and those cured through treatment are able to stop and even reverse damage to the liver caused by the virus. 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 linkages to care. Patient navigation, help line and other support services. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the Council of the City and County of Denver, Section one. The Denver City Council agrees that preventing and treating Hep C 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 recognize recognizes July 28 as World Hepatitis Day. Section three at the clerk of the city and county of Denver shall test and affix the seal of the city and county in Denver to this proclamation, and then a copy be transmitted to Nancy Steinfurth, executive director of Liver Health Connection. Thank you. Councilman Lopez, your motion to adopt this president. I move to adopt proclamation 545 of 2017. Great idea has been moved. And second, it comes by members of council councilman lopez. Thank you. I appreciate it. I, as you know, have been doing this thing for. I don't know, eight years. Every every year on the council. And in those eight years, I cannot help but think. And, you know, here's the thing. I. This is supposed to be Councilman Ray Garcia's proclamation on long time ago. He didn't show up and we needed someone to carry the proclamation. And I said, I'll do it. But guess what? I did it. And I said, wait a second. This actually hits home for me. This hits home for me because the only the. The man that played that role of father in my life died. I passed away because of cirrhosis of the liver. He had no idea until it was detectable. I think sometime in the late 2000 or 2000, late nineties. He realized, and they found that he had hepatitis C. And his liver was already at a point where it was life threatening. And my grandfather thought to himself, a man wasn't that much of a drinker. I mean I mean, the guy would drink the beer. That was the generic beer and kind of white and, you know, the white Canada stripe on it said beer. Right. I remember that being my grandfather. He said, No, I don't think that's it. My grandfather never you know, I was faithful man is somebody who's just is my grandfather. Now, I guess what? In World War Two. My grandfather was serving in Germany. He was hurt. His Jeep had ran over an explosive and everybody in the jeep was killed and it just crushed his knee and he bled. And so they gave him a blood transfusion. A lot of folks in that age range. It was undetectable. And ended up taking my grandfather from us. And so for me, this hits home because I think to myself, what would have happened if he'd stayed around? I know I'd have at least four of my formative years in my life, my grandfather around. Right. And knowing that now is preventable. Ladies and gentlemen, we have to make sure people understand this is preventable and it's curable. How many diseases that are terrible like this. Can we say that about. Hmm. Here's just one of them. And it's important that folks that everybody get you get people out there to get tested. Should I go all the time? And, you know, I hate needles, but I just do it just because, you know, just to be in solidarity. And also I'm a freaking out as I go along. But, you know, you just kind of like you have to do it. And it's it's out there and it's something that's preventable. And the more education that we have, the better and the better we can get the word out. And I just think to myself, okay, well, you know, I thought to myself, oh, man, how is this proclamation really changed? Was it the language is kind of the same language and this over and over. But I think to myself, you know what, eight years is a long time. Eight years is a lot of people. Imagine what eight years can do. Right. Every single year we have to make sure we talk about this and we make it commonplace. So. Mr. President, I really appreciate the time being able to comment on it. As a great organization used to be called the Hep C connection, but now it's the liver liver health connection. So without further ado, I'm proudly supporting this proclamation in memory of my grandfather, and I hope that my colleagues will join me in doing the same. Beautiful. Councilman Lopez, thanks for carrying the ball for city council on this important issue and for our city for the last eight years. It looks like no one else is up to speak, Madam Secretary. Roll call. Lopez. I knew Ortega. I Assessment Clerk by Espinosa. Flynn. I. Gilmore. Herndon. Kashan Canete. Mr. President. I. 12. Please close the voting and then switch 12 eyes. Proclamation 545 has been adopted. Madam Secretary, I see nine up there. I'll clean up the vote. Okay. You guys don't worry about that. We'll clean it up. All right. Counsel Guzman Lopez, do you have anyone you'd like to bring up? Absolutely. I'd like to welcome back up to the counselor podium and Nancy Steinfurth, who is the E.D., the executive director of the Liver Health Connection, which has a great announcement that we're participating in. Right. So go for it. Oh, dear. I hope that's on my remarks. Hello. And thank you very much for the opportunity to speak to you tonight. I'm here tonight to offer hope and action to anyone who may have had a risk factor for the hepatitis C virus. That means baby boomers, Vietnam veterans, health care workers, police, fire, all those police officers who were here before, EMT responders, people who were transfused with blood plasma or RH factor. People who. Received tattoos in unregulated settings. Or people who shared needles or works while injecting. Let's face it, the list includes almost. All of us. I'm happy to. Say that there is hope for anyone with the virus, and that's because we have a cure that is up to 99% effective. So there's a lots of conditions, you know, this and that and the other 99%. They're very close to a treatment that is 100% effective. So it's amazing the cure is cheaper than when they first were launched three years ago thanks to competition. So they're five different treatments and they vary by genotype. We can help with. Figuring out genotype, which one's the right one, etc. but it's amazing that they're now about $30,000 where originally the first drug was launched at. 84,000. So. It was a lot of hard work. There are financial resources to help with co-insurance payments. So a lot of times under the ACA, people might have a co-insurance amount of $6,000. We know of some foundations that will help be able to pay that. So someone might end up paying $50 or $100 per month for their treatment. So when you think of 84,000 down to $150, it's worth it. And then Colorado Medicaid in October 2016 reduced their restrictions so that many more people can access treatment. And I can tell you that our colleagues at Denver Health are very busy, very, very busy. But they like that. They like being kept busy. The action that I offer is this liver health connection will be offering free hepatitis C testing in the web building on May 19th between the hours of nine and 3 p.m.. So that's this Friday. We encourage everyone to come get tested if you've not already been so. Also, there is testing in four other Denver locations and that's at D cap 6260 East Colfax Avenue on a walk in basis. That's their new office. So it's three other locations. Hey, Denver, 1720, Pearl Street from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.. And then the Denver Indian Health and Family Service, 1633 Fillmore. From 830 to 4:30 p.m.. If this doesn't work for your schedule, you can call it. Contact us will test you at any time. Well. Not at midnight. Don't call then. But it's. It's free and we will honor that. So whatever the risk factor is at our organization will test you for free. And then we will work with you on what the next steps are. The test is simple. It's a little finger prick. So even Councilman Lopez can handle this. We can give results in 20 minutes, and then we'll walk you through. And all of these testing sites can walk you through what the next steps are, because this is diagnosing or coming up with antibodies. And that is not the final test in all of this. It's also possible to call a liver health connection 800 5224372 to find a treating physician actually anywhere in the country. But we'll focus on Denver right now. Financial assistance or to understand test results, we are available to help people along every step in the path to being cured. However, the first step is knowing your HIV status, and that starts with testing. We hope you'll join us and our Denver partner organizations on May 19th and take that first step. Thank you, Councilman Lopez, for always being our champion, always making me cry. The story of your grandfather and all of the council members for advocacy on behalf of this important issue. So for World Hepatitis Day, we're also doing a testing event on the 16th Street Mall, and I believe it's from 10 to 1 or two. We're going to have a tent, we're going to have some other activities, but. That'll be our second event as a part. Of this. Thank you very much. Thank you. And thank you, Councilman Lopez, for bringing this forward for the eighth year.