AIDS Vancouver Island Campbell River to Hold BBQ to Mark World Hepatitis Day

AIDS Vancouver Island (AVI) will be hosting a public BBQ at their offices (1371 c. Cedar Street, off the alleyway) on May 19 to increase awareness of the shocking statistic that one in 12 people on the planet are living with hepatitis B or hepatitis C and yet the majority of those infected are unaware.

“It is important to mark World Hepatitis Day and the fact that approximately 500 million people in the world have either hepatitis B or C and the majority of those infected do not know,” said Jeanette Reinhardt, health promotion worker at AVI. “While rates in Canada are not as high as global figures, British Columbia boasts hepatitis C rates that are twice as high as the national average.”

According to the BC Centre for Disease Control, rates of hepatitis C in British Columbia are twice that of the Canadian average with 66 new cases per 100,000 people in 2007, and rates on Southern and Central Vancouver Island are above this provincial number. The number of acute hepatitis B cases identified in BC has continued to decline keeping below the national rate since 2002.

Hepatitis C is transmitted by blood-to-blood contact and can be transmitted through the sharing of injection equipment or straws, piercing or tattoo equipment, and, may be transmitted, although it is rare, through the sharing of anything that might have blood on it (ex. razors, nail clippers and toothbrushes) or unprotected sex with someone who has hepatitis C. Hepatitis B can be transmitted through direct blood-to-blood contact, unprotected sex, unsterile needles or from an infected woman to her newborn during birth.

AIDS Vancouver Island provides community health services focused on the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C. For more information about hepatitis or this event, please contact Jeannette Reinhardt AIDS Vancouver Island at (250) 830-0787.