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On Monday (11), the first work of the “Yellow July” viral hepatitis awareness campaign was carried out in SantaremWest Bara. The campaign dealt with the theme of “Early Diagnosis is the First Step”, and the campaign started on Friday (8).
Promoted by City Hall through the Municipal Health Administration (Semsa) in partnership with the Center for Testing and Consultation (CTA), the procedure was carried out at Belo Centro, located in Lameira Bittencourt, downtown, with free services such as rapid tests for hepatitis B and C And the delivery of educational material about diseases.
In Santarem, from 2007 to June 2022, 665 cases of hepatitis B and 498 cases of hepatitis C were diagnosed.
In Brazil, according to the latest issued epidemiological bulletin, from 1999 to 2020, 254,389 thousand people were infected with hepatitis B and 262,815 thousand were infected with hepatitis C. A, B, C
Throughout the month of July, the campaign will carry out actions Monday through Saturday, at strategic times and locations. Among the activities: Guidelines, leaflets and a rapid screening for hepatitis B and C with the aim of conducting 1,000 tests during the campaign period.
The World Health Organization launched the national campaign – Photo: Agência Santarém / Disclosure
“The CTA is intensifying its actions in July of this year. The CTA coordinator, Ana Lucia Ferreira, stressed that we will carry out activities in different parts of the city with the aim of raising awareness of the population.”
Hepatitis is an infection of the liver that causes mild, moderate, or severe changes. Most of the time, it is a silent infection that has no symptoms. But when they do appear, fatigue, fever, malaise, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and yellowing of the skin and eyes are common.
Most patients do not have an early diagnosis, because due to the ‘silent nature of these infections’, symptoms usually appear only in the late stage, with the development of complications such as cirrhosis, leading to increased morbidity and mortality from liver failure.
The campaign encourages the search for people who do not have symptoms and will continue until the end of July. He stressed that “early diagnosis is essential for effective treatment, as hepatitis C can be treated, so the sooner a person detects it, the better.”
