Rally Against Hepatitis B Epidemic
State and local public health officials joined Supervisor Joel Engardio for a City Hall press conference to sound the alarm about the threat of hepatitis B in San Francisco.
Supervisor Engardio introduced a resolution to declare May National Hepatitis Awareness Month in San Francisco. Supervisor Engardio also shared the story of his late boyfriend Mark Lim who died in 2001 from liver cancer caused by chronic hepatitis B.
Joel Engardio with Mark Lim in 2000
Remarks by Supervisor Joel Engardio
April 30, 2024
I introduced a resolution to declare May as National Hepatitis Awareness Month in San Francisco.
This resolution is dedicated to my late boyfriend Mark Lim. He died in 2001 from liver cancer caused by hepatitis B.
It was a big surprise when Mark ended up with advanced liver cancer at age 30. He was fit. Always at the gym. And never drank alcohol.
Mark’s first symptom was a sudden onset of extreme pain that sent him to the ER. An ultrasound discovered his liver was full of tumors.
Prior to that day, he had no symptoms. That’s why hepatitis B is called a silent killer.
Soon after Mark got sick, he saw a public health advertisement about hepatitis B. It said one in 10 Asian Americans are infected with hepatitis B and don’t know it — and they could get liver cancer.
Finally, Mark’s illness made sense. The ad was sponsored by the Asian Liver Center at Stanford University.
Mark was a young doctor just out of residency. He worked for a major hospital in the area. He never heard of the Asian Liver Center. None of the doctors he worked with heard of it either.
Mark made an appointment. Then he found out that the Asian Liver Center was just a basement storage room at Stanford — a tiny office. This was in 2001. It showed how little the medical establishment paid attention to hepatitis B in Asian Americans back then.
The director — Dr. Sam So — had bad news. It was too late for Mark. And Mark didn’t get the information that could have saved his life.
Chronic hepatitis B is often passed from mother to child at birth. No one thought to test Mark. For 30 years, his chronic hepatitis B was a ticking time bomb. Had Mark known his status, he could have gotten treatment.
It was devastating to hear Dr. So say it was too late for Mark. But as Mark accepted his fate, he wanted to help others by raising awareness. There was a successful vaccination for hepatitis B. This is a treatable and preventable disease.
Before Mark died, he saved lives by telling his story. He was in the San Francisco Chronicle’s first report about the threat of hepatitis B.
Mark’s advocacy was a precursor to the creation of SF Hep B Free Bay Area and its life-saving work. Thank you to Dr. So and all the local heroes who stepped up in the past 20 years to make the world pay attention to hepatitis B. Chinese Hospital held the first community screenings and San Francisco General provided the first universal infant immunizations in the country.
Hepatitis B disproportionately affects Asian Americans. Only 6 percent of the U.S. population is AAPI, but that 6 percent accounts for 58 percent of Americans living with hepatitis B. San Francisco has one of the largest AAPI populations in the nation, which makes hepatitis B awareness an essential local issue.
Today, five San Francisco Bay Area organizations — Chinese Hospital, Asian Health Services, San Francisco AIDS Foundation, North East Medical Services, and SF Hep B Free — have secured funding to provide innovative and culturally competent hepatitis B education, testing, and care services.
And today, the Asian Liver Center at Stanford is no longer in the basement. It has its own building.
We’re making progress. Remember the public health ad that Mark saw back in 2001, before he died? It announced that one in 10 Asian Americans have hepatitis B.
Well today, the number is one in 12. That’s progress. And it gives us hope.
But we still have an epidemic of hepatitis B. We still have work to do. We need a lot more help to put an end to hepatitis B in San Francisco and around the world.
Learn more about the epidemic of hepatitis B and how to end it:
Asian Liver Center at Stanford University
SF Hep B Free Bay Area
Calling Out a Silent Killer (San Francisco Examiner)
Read a personal story about how Mark navigated his illness:
The Birthday Closet
A photo remembrance and reflections 20 years later:
Caramel Apple Lessons
