THE Hepatology Society of the Philippines, in partnership with the Department of Health and other institutional stakeholder-partners in the campaign to prevent and control the dreaded killer disease, will lead the country’s annual celebration of World Hepatitis Day on July 28 at the East Avenue Medical Center.
Simultaneous celebrations organized by members of the HSP will also be held at St. Luke’s Medical Center, The Medical City, Manila Medical Center, Cardinal Santos Medical Center, Metropolitan Hospital and Philippine General Hospital.
Theme of this year’s celebration is “Infant vaccination within 24 hours of birth to prevent Hepatitis B.”
Scheduled activities include lay fora, free consultation and viral hepatitis screening.
World Hepatitis Day is one of only four official disease-specific world health days declared by the World Health Organization which is celebrated every year on the 28th of July.
Over the years, millions have participated in different activities and celebrations around the world to raise awareness on viral hepatitis and promote increased access to treatment, care and better prevention programs.
The HSP has a long-standing tradition of celebrating World Hepatitis Day. Last year, the largest World Hepatitis Day celebration was held at the St. Luke’s Medical Center. Many celebrities joined the big event to raise awareness on viral hepatitis.
This year, the theme of the global campaign against viral hepatitis is “Elimination.”
With the adoption at the World Health Assembly this year of the Global Health Sector Strategy for Viral Hepatitis and at the WHO Regional Committee for the Western Pacific last year of the Regional Action Plan for Viral Hepatitis in the Western Pacific 2016-2020, member states have signed up and committed to the goal of eliminating viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030.
The Hepatology Society of the Philippines (HSP) is the major advocate in the effort to control and eliminate the threat of in viral hepatitis in the country through various awareness programs among the various stakeholders including health care providers and the general public on the continuing threat of the dreaded viral disease.
Among the major achievements of the HSP together with its partners-stakeholders , was the creation of a national policy on “Hepatitis B in the Workplace”.
In pursuing its advocacy, the HSP maintains a multi-platform public awareness program on Hepatitis B called the B Aware Campaign, among which include, an active Facebook page(www.facebook.com/BeAwarePH) and a website and a media campaign on print and radio which will be rolled out in the coming months.
