Hepatitis Screenings in Pinellas on July 24 

--World Hepatitis Day Raises Awareness of Prevention and Treatment--

There's a chronic disease that--in two of its forms--affects 400 million people around the world and kills 1.4 million of them each year. The good news is that it's preventable and better awareness of how it's transmitted and how to avoid it could save millions of people.

Viral hepatitis continues to be a public-health threat. Hepatitis B and C are chronic diseases transmitted via blood and other body fluids. They affect the liver and can cause cancer, cirrhosis and death. Although there's a vaccine to prevent hepatitis B, there's none for hepatitis C. Contact with the blood of an infected person, unsafe injections and sharing needles with drug users who have hepatitis transmit the disease.

Although World Hepatitis Day is marked annually on July 28, a community event on Friday, July 24 will offer screenings and testing a few days earlier. The Florida Department of Health in Pinellas County (DOH-Pinellas) and other community organizations are partnering with the Walgreens store location at 875 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. N. in St. Petersburg to promote awareness of hepatitis prevention. At no cost, hepatitis screenings and other wellness screenings will be provided from 11 AM to 4 PM that day only.

In 2014, World Health Assembly delegates from 194 governments adopted a resolution to promote global action to prevent, diagnose and treat viral hepatitis. World Hepatitis Day is observed on July 28 because it's the birthday of Novel Laureate Dr. Baruch S. Blumberg, who discovered the hepatitis B virus and developed the first vaccine to prevent it.

For information about hepatitis, go to https://www.floridahealth.gov/diseases-and-conditions/hepatitis/index.html

For information about DOH-Pinellas, go to www.PinellasHealth.com.