City officials and health advocates united in San Francisco on the steps of City Hall to call on 2011 mayoral candidates to rid the city of hepatitis B and C if elected, Asianweek reports. Hepatitis is an important health topic in the region because San Francisco has the highest liver cancer rate in the nation, and liver cancer—whose primary causes are hepatitis B and C—is the deadliest malignancy in America. In addition, 10 percent of Asian-Pacific Islanders are living with hepatitis B.

Participants included the San Francisco Hepatitis C Task Force, the San Francisco Hep B Free Campaign and representatives of the city’s LGBT and Asian-American communities, along with California Assembly Speaker Pro Tempore Fiona Ma, San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener and Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi. Ted Fang, cofounder of the San Francisco Hep B Free Campaign, asked the city’s mayoral candidates to provide 300-word statements explaining how, if elected, they’d eliminate hepatitis from the city. The candidates’ responses will be published online at AsianWeek.com, HepCSF.org and SFHepBFree.org.