For over 25 years the Latino Commission On AIDS has been bringing awareness on AIDS/HIV and Hepatitis to the Hispanic and Latino community. The organization has worked hard not only to educate the community about these diseases but also to bring awareness and education. They even helped establish May 15th as National Hispanic Hepatitis Day, which has helped many discover that they carry this invisible disease.
What’s Hepatitis?
Hepatitis is a disease characterized by the inflammation of the liver. Three of the most common types of the disease are Hepatitis A, B, and C. Hepatitis can be caused by a variety of things, such as drugs, alcohol use, or certain medical conditions.
Hepatitis A, B, and C can carry the following symptoms: fatigue, nausea, poor appetite, stomach pain, fever, and jaundice (yellowing of the skin and eyes). Very often hepatitis B and C can be chronic and cause no symptoms for many years, so by the time a patient seeks treatment, the liver might already be damaged.
75% of People With Hepatitis Don’t Even Know They’re Infected
Hepatitis C
The Latino Commission On AIDS is part of the Hispanic Health Network and one of their biggest concerns they have is with those people that don’t know that they have viral Hepatitis C. “There are anywhere from 3.5 to 5 million individuals living with Hepatitis C in the U.S,” explains Guillermo Chacón, President of the Latino Commission On AIDS. “The most difficult thing with hepatitis C is that you might not know that you have it or that you have been exposed to the hepatitis C virus,” he adds. When this happens the infection could become so severe that you can develop several serious complications such as a chronic liver infection to even worse–cancer.
Target Groups
One of the biggest target groups for Hepatitis C is baby boomers or those born between 1945 and 1965. Why? During that period of time, there was a lot going on, there were wars and people traveling overseas receiving blood transfusions during a time period where blood donated at blood banks was not being tested for viral diseases. The other target group is anyone that uses needles or syringes through the use of drugs or even those that use dirty needles when getting a tattoo.
There Is A Cure
Unlike HIV/AIDS, for Hepatitis there is a cure and there are various treatments. “We have to re-educate people and tell them that we don’t have one, but several types of treatment that can cure those that have been exposed to the Hepatitis C virus,” explains Chacón. Like cancer and other diseases, the sooner you get diagnosed with the virus, the easier it is to treat it.
“The liver is one of the most important organs that we have and one of the key functions of the liver is to clean our blood,” he says. The beauty of the liver is that it’s the only organ that has the ability to grow again, even if you cut a little piece. Any other organ does not have that ability, but even though it can do that, we have to do everything we can to keep it healthy.
The Commission hosts several awareness events throughout the year in order to get people tested and to help educate the Latino community in English and Spanish. There are many that are living with Hepatitis C and the sooner they get diagnosed the sooner they seek treatment. “The last thing we want is for someone to require a liver transplant, which is very expensive and there is no guarantee because the chances of your body rejecting an organ are high,” says Chacón.
They recommend that when you visit your doctor every year, you should ask to get tested for hepatitis, especially if you’re a baby boomer or are have been in contact with the sharing of needles. If you’re in New York, you can even get a free HIV test, and hepatitis testing is also available.