Big Day Out for Hepatitis WA volunteers this Sunday

StephenW

                Big Day Out for Hepatitis WA volunteers this Sunday                        

                04/Feb/2011            

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                                                                    Seveta Tegova, Riana Young and Matt Armstrong will be at the Big Day Out educating young people about hepatitis. Picture: Will Russell                    
                                        HEPATITIS WA volunteers will be out in force at this weekend’s Big Day Out at Claremont Showground to educate young people about the risks of blood to blood contact and transmission of viral hepatitis.
                The non-profit group will be talking to festival-goers about blood awareness and safety in a bid to reduce the number of infections and dispel myths about the ‘silent epidemic’.
                        People living with viral hepatitis may appear healthy but the virus could be damaging their liver.
                        Hepatitis B is transmitted by unsafe sex and blood-to-blood contact, and is treatable, while preventable vaccines are available for hepatitis A and B.
                        Marketing and education officer Riana Young said her friend was diagnosed with hepatitis B after getting a tattoo at a friend’s house.
                        “It’s just too easy for one person’s blood, and any viruses in that blood, to get into another person’s bloodstream when an unqualified person is giving the tattoo or piercing, and not sterilising equipment appropriately,” Ms Young said.

“Fortunately in this case, the virus was cleared naturally within six months.”