24.07.18
2 minute read
This Saturday is World Hepatitis Day, so throughout this week we’ve been doing our part to raise awareness of hepatitis testing and treatment.
Out of the 325 million people living with viral hepatitis globally, 9 in 10 are living with hepatitis B or hepatitis C without knowing.
– World Hepatitis Alliance
Led by World Hepatitis Alliance, the day promotes the need for a massive scale-up in screening, diagnosis and healthcare in order to reach goals by NHS England to eliminate hepatitis C nationally by 2025 and by the World Health Organisation to eliminate hepatitis C and b globally by 2030.
This week our staff will be sharing the #FindTheMissingMillions campaign to encourage as many service users to receive free and confidential tests and vaccinations.
World Hepatitis Day is great chance for us to spread the word about how effective and easy the new treatment for hepatitis C is, test as many people as we can and offer hepatitis B vaccines to our service users. We are aiming to get as many people into treatment as we can to help improve their lives.
– Jess, BDP’s Blood-Borne Virus Nurse
At our central Health & Harm Reduction Centre, we offer hepatitis C testing through a simple finger-prick test for minimal discomfort. We also offer quick fibroscans to check your liver’s health and free hepatitis B vaccinations (Monday – Friday). Please call ahead to check availability.
We are also pleased to be running a Community Treatment Clinic pilot on Mondays 1.30 – 4.30pm, where staff from University Hospital Bristol are able to offer a range of testing, vaccinations and a new treatment programme – from just 1 tablet daily, from just 8 weeks.
