It’s time to get ready to celebrate Hepatitis Awareness Month and the sixth annual national Hepatitis Testing Day on May 19th! The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has developed a comprehensive list of activities and opportunities for local health departments to get engaged in promoting awareness of viral hepatitis in their communities. In recognition, CDC has released new Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports (MMWRs) related to viral hepatitis on State HCV Incidence and Policies Related to Preventive Services, and HCV Treatment Services for Persons Who Inject Drugs, and Hepatitis C Virus Infection Among Women Giving Birth — Tennessee and United States, 2009–2014. In addition, check out the below resources and start planning how your department can get involved in May!
- Hepatitis Awareness Month and Testing Day Resource Center has free tools to help support your awareness activities and testing events. Resources include buttons, badges, or a quiz widget for your website or email signatures; Live-Read Radio Scripts templates to pitch your events to local radio stations; and sample proclamations for Hepatitis Awareness Month and/or national Hepatitis Testing Day.
- Join CDC, Hep B United, and NASTAD for a Hepatitis Awareness Month Webinar on April 25th at 1pm EDT/10amPDT. This will be an opportunity to learn about available resources, hear about what partners are doing to promote hepatitis B and C testing, and share events you have planned for May. Visit http://bit.ly/2o1pKg4 to sign up and help spread the word.
- Join the Be #HepAware Thunderclap on May 19th at 12:00 p.m. EDT/9:00 a.m. PDT! Supporters can sign up in advance using their Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr accounts for a one time post that will automatically be sent on May 19th. Visit http://thndr.me/UtWAFY to sign up and help spread the word to your members and followers. Contact [email protected] or visit the Resource Center for more details.
- If your organization provides ongoing hepatitis testing and vaccination services, please visit https://gettested.cdc.gov/ and fill out an online form to make sure your services are registered within their database. This site is a tool for people to enter their zip code and find ongoing services in their area.
- Share our feature on the ABCs of Viral Hepatitis and encourage people to take the Hepatitis Risk Assessment to get personalized hepatitis vaccination & testing recommendations. The Risk Assessment can be shared by posting badges on your website or promoting the link on social media.
- The Know More Hepatitis campaign, which encourages people born from 1945-1965 to get tested for hepatitis C, and the multilingual Know Hepatitis B campaign, promoting hepatitis B testing among Asian Americans, have free resources available for use. Campaign resources include video PSAs and posters, radio PSAs, infographics, fact sheets, customizable event flyers, and other materials.
- Follow @cdchep on Twitter for information about hepatitis resources, tools, publications, campaign updates, and events. Use the hashtags #HepAware, #hepatitis, #HepTestingDay, and #HepatitisElimination to join the conversation and share information on viral hepatitis.
- Sign up for monthly emails from the Division of Viral Hepatitis about new publications, recommendations, new materials or significant events.
- View and share the latest
If you have any questions about Hepatitis Awareness Month, visit the Division of Viral Hepatitis’s website for information and resources (e.g., fact sheets, posters, provider resources) on all types of hepatitis or email [email protected].
