The Human Faces of Healthcare
San Jose Calif.- CHAM is actively participating in the organizing for the Health Fair at Andrew Hill High School on June 12. The greatest victory in the health care battle of the past year was the emergence of a powerful social movement around the national health care policy debate. The important thing to do now is to continue moving forward.
Many welcomed the national reform passed by Congress, but still falls short of the standard of health care as a human right that President Obama supported during the campaign. The exclusion of millions of immigrants is major weakness that will ultimately undermine all of our efforts to receive the care we need and deserve.
The next step in building our movement is to push for the passage of SB 810 in California, a single payer health care bill that would guarantee comprehensive health care for everyone at a fraction of the cost of our current system. This health fair will help to educate, inspire, and organize people to continue pressing on toward the goal. We hope to see you there!
It?s a good opportunity to join a free health fair and public hearing.  Learn how to access your human right to healthcare, get free health screenings and have your voices heard on healthcare. 
The fair is going to take place at Andrew Hill High School Auditorium, 3200 Senter Road, San Jose, CA 95111   (at Capitol Expressway and Senter Road) from 9 am to 3 pm.
Local doctors and nurses, county and city officials, and union and community leaders who are committed to universal healthcare will make up the morning and afternoon panels of speakers.
The students of Andrew Hill High School?s Health and Human Services Academy are co-hosting this event and will be assisting with health screenings and translation. Andrew Hill is a medical magnet school preparing students to enter health and human service fields through core classes in the sciences; specialized classes in physiology, psychology, med terminology, etc.; guest speakers, field trips, and job shadowing.   In their senior year students take college classes providing them a strong base for entering health or human service certificate or degree programs.   Medical students from Stanford and pre-med students from San Jose City College, all members of the American Medical Students Association (AMSA), will also be participating and speaking. There will also be refreshments, lunch and entertainment.

Senate Approves Clean Needle Bill
SACRAMENTO – California is one of only three states that still prohibit pharmacists from selling a syringe without a prescription.  Most states amended their laws in light of overwhelming evidence that criminalizing access to sterile syringes led drug users to share used ones, and that sharing syringes spread HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C and other blood-borne diseases that can live in a used syringe.
On 21-8 vote, the California Senate today approved a bill authored by Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) that would allow pharmacies throughout California to sell up to 30 sterile syringes to an adult without a prescription.  SB 1029 is supported by doctors, pharmacists, and AIDS prevention advocates.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-Los Angeles) signed legislation in 2004 to create a five-year pilot program to evaluate the safety and efficacy of allowing adults to purchase and possess a limited number of syringes for personal use.  Under the pilot program pharmacies in Los Angeles County, the Bay Area and some other parts of the state have been allowed to sell syringes.
Yee’s SB 1029 would extend the sunset and allow all pharmacists throughout the state with the discretion to sell sterile syringes without a prescription.
SB 1029 is supported by the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, AIDS Project Los Angeles, American Civil Liberties Union, California Hepatitis Alliance, California Nurses Association, California Psychiatric Association, California Retailers Association, County Alcohol & Drug Program Administrators, Drug Policy Alliance Network, California Medical Association, California Pharmacists Association, City and County of San Francisco, Health Officers Association of California, and Equality California, among others.
Sharing of used syringes is the most common cause of new hepatitis C infections in California and the second most common cause of HIV infections.  The state Department of Public Health estimates that approximately 3,000 California residents contract hepatitis C through syringe sharing every year and another 750 cases of HIV are caused by syringe sharing.
These diseases are costly and potentially deadly. Hospitalizations for hepatitis B and hepatitis C cost the state $2 billion in 2007, according to a report by the California Research Bureau.  The lifetime cost of treating hepatitis C is approximately $100,000, unless a liver transplant is required, and then the cost exceeds $300,000 per surgery.  The lifetime cost of treating HIV/AIDS is now estimated to exceed $600,000 per patient.
SB 1029 must be approved by the Assembly before consideration by the Governor. ∆