Battling for Attention

The National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable (NVHR) recently issued a press release decrying the fact that controlling hepatitis B and C is not among the “six winnable battles” identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Here are some excerpts from the release:

"The CDC's newly released 'six winnable battles' strategy makes a mockery of the broad-based, comprehensive, and integrated public-health strategy that our nation so desperately needs. In seeking to win six narrowly defined health care battles, the CDC may well lose the overall public-health war.

"The CDC's omission of viral hepatitis from its list of 'winnable battles' is not simply an oversight - it's an abdication of duty to many Americans who may well lose their battle with chronic viral hepatitis in the decades to come."

In a prior blog entry, I had commended the CDC for having the wisdom (and nerve) to identify just a few key health areas for strategic focus.

However, I fully expect that other passionate and well-intentioned public health agencies and advocates will join the NVHR in questioning the completeness of CDC’s winnable battle list. And, I think, most will have a good argument. There are many, many other areas of extreme public health urgency (e.g., diabetes, substance abuse, Novel H1N1 flu, and domestic violence, to name a few). However, it should be pointed out that the six winnable battle areas (HIV, motor vehicle injuries, obesity/nutrition/physical activity/food safety, healthcare associated infections, teen pregnancy and tobacco) cover a lot of ground in terms of health impact, and there is crosscutting value in effectively working on these health concerns (e.g., efforts to control HIV also benefits efforts to control the spread of other sexually-transmitted diseases, including hepatitis B and C).

Most importantly, though, the CDC is the leading public health institution in the world, and as a citizen and a public health professional, I expect the agency to exert leadership. The identification of “winnable battles” is a bold and controversial step. It provides strategic perspective to those of us battling in the trenches, but shouldn’t be perceived as a mandate.

As I stated in my prior blog entry, for those of us working on improving health among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, controlling hepatitis B is our “winnable battle”. In that regard, I will continue to support the efforts of the NVHR (APCA is a member) to put hepatitis B and C on the national radar screen and to advocate for additional resources.

-Doug Hirano, MPH, APCA Executive Director