Show your face to eliminate hepatitis

Contributed by Bridie Taylor, Senior Communications Officer World Hepatitis Alliance.

Viral hepatitis is one of the leading causes of death globally, accounting for 1.34 million deaths per year – that’s as many as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis or malaria. Together, hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C cause 80% of liver cancer cases in the world. Currently, 90% of people living with hepatitis B and 80% living with hepatitis C are not aware of their status.

World Hepatitis Day is the ideal opportunity to change this. On 28 July the world comes together to raise awareness of the global burden of viral hepatitis, influence real change in disease prevention and access to testing, treatment and care and transform the lives of the 325 million people living with the illness. One of just four disease-specific global awareness days officially endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO), WHD is co-ordinated by the World Hepatitis Alliance and WHO to unite patient organisations, governments and the general public and boost the global profile of viral hepatitis.

The theme of WHD 2017 is ELIMINATE HEPATITIS and aims to build on momentum to meet this goal following the adoption of WHO’s global hepatitis elimination strategy in 2016 and the launch of NOhep, the first ever global movement to eliminate viral hepatitis by 2030. ELIMINATE HEPATITIS is a simple call to action that everyone can get behind. Regardless of your priorities, the theme can be easily adapted for local use; every activity that addresses viral hepatitis is a step towards eliminating it.

#ShowYourFace to eliminate hepatitis

To encourage people to feel empowered, personally connected and understand their role in elimination, the World Hepatitis Alliance are putting a human face to elimination of viral hepatitis and are bringing the ELIMINATE HEPATITIS theme to life through the #ShowYourFace campaign. #ShowYourFace is a personalised Polaroid photo campaign focusing on individual human faces to highlight that hepatitis is relevant to everyone, everywhere in the world and that helping to eliminate it is something we can all support. Individual human faces are accompanied by I AM statements, powerful personal messages that highlight the individual actions being taken to meet the 2030 goal or stress the emotions felt by those impacted by hepatitis to encourage others to take a stand.

Get involved

There are many ways to take part in World Hepatitis Day and help raise awareness:

• Show your support with the #ShowYourFace selfie tool
• Organise an event. Download the Events Toolkit for top tips and promote your activities through the WHD Events Map
• Help raise awareness and sign the #ShowYourFace Thunderclap
• Create your own custom WHD poster or download infographics and social media graphics

Find out more about the #ShowYourFace campaign at www.worldhepatitisday.org or email your questions to contact@worldhepatitisalliance.org.