The Eastern Region Hepatitis C Operational Delivery Network (HCV ODN), which functions from a ‘hub’ at Addenbrooke’s with bases in surrounding counties, is backing World Hepatitis Day on 28 July with events before and after.
Its mobile clinic – which has become a familiar site out and about in the community - will be parked on The Green and The Gardens between Royal Papworth Hospital and Astra Zeneca from 10am to 5pm on Tuesday 23 July to offer testing and advice.
Visitors can get the results of a finger prick test or mouth swab in just 20 minutes and, as an NHS service, it is entirely free.
The team will also launch a new bus shelter advertising campaign across East Anglia, which organisers think will be just the ticket to highlight key messages and the kind of support available.
Hepatitis C is a blood borne virus (passes via blood to blood contact). Risk factors for having the virus include old/ /homemade tattoos/piercings; current/past drug use (sniffed and injected); anal sex; certain countries of birth; blood transfusions and solid organ transplants before 1996; and healthcare abroad.
The virus damages liver cells, which over several years can cause serious liver scarring, liver failure and liver cancer. With a lack of clear symptoms, people can be infected with hepatitis C and go undiagnosed for many years.
Treatment is easy to take and accessible, involving 8-12 weeks of tablets with few or no side effects and a 96 per cent cure rate.
The NHS has an ambitious plan to eliminate hepatitis C from England before the global goal of 2030. It is estimated that tens of thousands of people are still infected country-wide and identifying these people is key to eliminating the virus.
Eastern Region HCV ODN clinical lead, Dr Will Gelson, said: “Our message to anyone who has the slightest concern that they may be infected is to drop into the van and get tested. It only takes a few minutes and if there is a problem there are rapid, highly effective, treatments available.”
The Eastern Region HCV ODN provides testing, treatment and support to people with HCV across Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Bedfordshire. Visit its website to learn more.
More information is available on the NHS website or Hepatitis Trust, which is a national UK charity.
