National Hepatitis Education Campaign
A disease unknown to many Americans, chronic viral hepatitis threatens to cause liver failure for millions of unsuspecting people. As many as 5.3 million Americans are infected, many of whom don’t know it.
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report in 2010 called: Hepatitis and Liver Cancer: A National Strategy for Prevention and Control of Hepatitis B and C. The report revealed that neither the public nor health care providers are well educated about the disease. To respond to the key findings of the report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is launching a national education campaign to raise awareness of hepatitis and increase the number of people who are tested for it.
Hepatitis simply means "inflammation of the liver," and there are five types - Hepatitis A, B, C, D and E. Some, like Hepatitis A, can be transmitted through contaminated food and make you sick for a short period of time with no lasting effects. Hepatitis B and C, however, are transmitted by blood and can cause chronic infection that can lead to liver disease and cancer. While the "alphabet soup" of hepatitis can be fascinating for researchers, it can be confusing for everyone else - including people who may be at risk.
“People didn’t understand that they might be at risk,” said Cynthia Jorgensen, head of the communications, education and training unit of CDC’s Division of Viral Hepatitis, which is responsible for CDC's National Hepatitis Education Campaign. “They thought that they would know if they were infected because they would have symptoms, and that is not correct. People can live for 20 or 30 years with the virus and not ever have a symptom. We also learned that many of them assumed, falsely, that they had been tested for viral hepatitis, since they go to their doctors and get annual blood tests – again, something that is not correct.”
Campaign targets providers, the public and people at-risk
Through the education campaign, CDC hopes to raise general awareness of chronic viral hepatitis, who is at risk, and how it can be prevented, detected and treated.
A key goal of the campaign is to provide health care providers with the right information and tools to talk to their patients about the disease, test for it and, when needed, connect patients to appropriate treatment and care.
The campaign will also encourage those who are at risk for chronic hepatitis B and C infection to talk to their health care providers about getting tested.
“We want consumers to understand that they might be at risk for hepatitis and, if they are, to talk to their doctors about getting tested,” said Jorgensen. “Getting people information and early treatment can save lives.”