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LIHUE The Kauai County Council landed a right hook against one of Hawaiis most lethal and undetected killers, the hepatitis B virus. The council on Wednesday unanimously approved a resolution supporting a nonprofits efforts to wipe hepatitis B off the island through the Hepatitis B Elimination Project.

The most common cause of liver cancer in Hawaii is hepatitis B, Malama Pono Executive Director DQ Jackson said. Hawaii has the highest rate of liver cancer in the United States.

Malama Pono Health Services mission is to use education to stop the spread of viral hepatitis and other sexually transmitted diseases on Kauai, and to serve people affected by those diseases, according to Jackson.

The nonprofit is launching a three-year, $400,000 education project aimed at eliminating hepatitis B as a transmissible disease on Kauai. Hepatitis B is incurable, but it is treatable and the vaccination is highly effective for decades, he said.

We are here today to ask your moral support for this project, Jackson told the council. We ask you to use your high standing in the community to encourage at-risk persons to be screened and to be vaccinated.

Resolution 2012-60, introduced by Councilman KipuKai Kualii, encourages people to get tested for hepatitis B. The resolution states the virus is transmitted through blood and infected bodily fluids, which can occur through direct blood-to-blood contact, unprotected sex, use of unsterile needles and from an infected mother to the newborn during delivery.

The liver is such an important organ that the human body can only survive one or two days if the liver were to shut down, the resolution states.

Malama Pono Board of Directors President and Medical Director Jimmy Yoon said, conservatively, approximately 400 million people in the world are infected with hepatitis B virus, translating to more than 5 percent of the entire worlds population. In the U.S. alone, there are at least 2 million people infected.

Unfortunately its a silent killer; people dont get sick or feel sick or has symptoms until its virtually too late, Yoon said.

Malama Ponos best estimate, through consultation with the federal Centers for Disease Control and the Hawaii Department of Health, is that there are about 1,000 people on Kauai who are infected with the virus, according to Yoon. Statewide, it is estimated that about 40,000 people live with the virus.

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Council encourages testing for hepatitis B