Lexi Saldaña
Daily Herald
The Saskatchewan Health Authority has hosted their annual Hepatitis C Awareness Day in collaboration with the Salvation Army Tuesday afternoon.
The event shared educational information on hepatitis C as well as on-site testing for individuals interested.
“We know we have higher rates in Saskatchewan compared to the Canadian average,” said Dr. Ahmed Faress, a medical health officer working with the Saskatchewan Health Authority. “So it’s something of concern to us and that is important for us here in Prince Albert and Saskatchewan.
Hepatitis C is a viral infection that causes liver inflammation and damage, caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV), and spread through sharing needles, unsafe medical or tattoo procedures with poor sterilization, or sexual contact.
According to the Government of Canada, a 2021 report revealed the hepatitis C rate was 19.7 cases per 100,000 population. Seven provinces and territories reported hepatitis C rates above the national rate, of which Saskatchewan was second to Manitoba with 38.3 cases per 100,000 population.
Faress explained that testing is the solution to knowing whether or not an individual has hepatitis C.
“Of course, there are opportunities for individuals to get tested through seeing their family physician or other healthcare provider,” he said. “But it’s also an opportunity for us, by doing these events, to meet people out in the community, be able to offer the education for them there and also offer on site testing to kind of help improve access to care, to finding out if you have hepatitis C and hopefully for anyone who needs it to be able to connect them with treatment.”
Faress believes educating the community is a way to prevent infection.
“Being out in the community sharing information about education, how to keep yourself safe, encouraging kind of safe sex practices, using condoms and we also know–because it also is spread through injection drug use–then also connecting people with clean needles,” he said.
Furthermore, Faress said informing the community helps debunk misconceptions, stating that “people might not know it is treatable.”
Alongside Faress, Paulette Martin, the regional HIV strategy coordinator for the Saskatchewan Health Authority and registered nurse, added emphasis to educating not only youth, but also older generations.
“We’re trying to make sure that older generations are educated in that [condoms] are not only to prevent pregnancies but also to protect your sexual health through the long term,” said Martin. “So we want to sort of re-educate their minds about past practices with condoms and why we want them to be using condoms. Especially if they’re having multiple partners or they’re with a brand new partner.”
She added the increase of liver cancer within individuals born in the years of 1945 to 1975.
“People are not aware that they might have had a vulnerable activity in their past that predisposed themselves to Hep C. And they’re quite shocked that they can have Hep C for decades,” said Martin.
She stressed knowing the status of your sexual health in order to know when and how to protect oneself.
In terms of partnering with the Salvation Army, Martin said she is grateful for their ongoing support.
“What we’re finding is that with our increased STBBI rates provincially, the more we provide community support and that we all work together, that is one way of combating our high STBBI rates,” she said. “I think we’re a great example of that community partnership and friendship and being respectful. They’re very curious about how health is changing in our community. They’re very concerned as we are.”
According to Hepatitis Education Canada, stigma is one of the barriers many fail to overcome when it comes to testing.
“We want as much as possible that sexual health is a part of your health,” said Faress. “So just like people would go to have their blood pressure checked or other things, we kind of want to emphasize that getting tested for sexually transmitted infections or kind of speaking to your physician about that, that’s routine.”
As for community feedback, Martin said “[they] see results quite apparent.”
“We had a testing event in June. We had over–I stopped counting to 80 people that I was having the conversation with–where we saw high numbers of testing being done that day. And it’s a day of hard work, but it’s one of the most rewarding days that we have when we have community testing events.” she said.
Martin said the Saskatchewan Health Authority plans to run another event in August.
“It’s making that human to human connection,” she said.
