Jade Ribbon Campaign

The Jade Ribbon Campaign (JRC) was launched by the Asian Liver Center (ALC) at Stanford University in May 2001 during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month to help spread awareness internationally about hepatitis B (HBV) and in Asian and Pacific Islander (API) communities.

The objective of the Jade Ribbon Campaign is twofold: (1) to eradicate HBV worldwide; and (2) to reduce the incidence and mortality associated with liver cancer.

Considered to be the essence of heaven and earth, Jade is believed in many Asian cultures to bring good luck and longevity while deflecting negativity. Folded like the Chinese character “人” (ren) meaning "person" or "people," the Jade Ribbon symbolizes the spirit of the campaign in bringing the Asian and global community together to combat this silent epidemic.

Since the campaign's founding, the Asian Liver Center (ALC) has been spearheading the Jade Ribbon Campaign through public service announcements in various media such as newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, billboard, and buses targeting communities with large API populations. The ALC also holds numerous seminars for health professionals and the public, cultural fairs, conferences, and HBV screening/vaccination events.

One of the ALC's largest achievements was the founding of 3 for Life in September 2004, a pilot program in collaboration with the San Francisco Department of Public Health that provided low-cost hepatitis A and B vaccinations and free hepatitis B testing to the San Francisco community every first and third Saturday of the month for a year. The program tested and vaccinated over 1,200 people—50% of which were found to be unprotected against HBV and 10% to be positive for HBV. Upon the completion of 3 for Life in September 2005, the ALC currently is working on plans to launch a similar screening/vaccination program to service the large API population in Los Angeles.

The Answer to Cancer (A2C) run was founded by Adrian Elkins, a 20-year-old student at Southern Oregon University who was diagnosed with liver cancer in 2002. Had he known during his childhood that his ethnicity and chronic hepatitis B infection increased his chance of developing liver cancer by 100%, he would have been regularly monitored for liver damage. He had no idea that hepatitis B – a disease he contracted at birth in Calcutta, India – causes 80% of the world's liver cancer cases. Adrian battled his disease for ten months, working tirelessly to organize an event to raise money for liver cancer research. Adrian saw the first-ever A2C run take place on August 8, 2003. Thanks to the generous support of friends, families and numerous companies, the 2003 Answer to Cancer Race was able to raise more than $20,000 for three charities and reach out to more than 240 participants. Adrian died only eight days after this first race.

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Wikipedia