Positive Speaking

Horses for Courses

Chinese groups find different ways to participate in WHD

Hepatitis SA’s World Hepatitis Day activity, Let’s Go Viral, managed to engage with the Chinese community in different ways. While some community groups have valiantly returned to face to face activities, as some TAFE English classes have done (see p2), other groups have remained cautious. One organisation we contacted was unable to participate because they had still not reactivated their group activities. Another group offered to include information in their newsletter. The Overseas Chinese Association (OCA) lunch group and a TAFE class accepted our invitation to provide information and

The lucky winners of the OCA quiz

facilitate their members’ participation in the Let’s Go Viral quiz. The OCA group participated in the quiz in a socially-distanced arrangement. The 40 participants were part of a weekly “hybrid lunch” activity which combined takeaways and socially distanced sit-downs. To minimise contact, for the peace of mind of participants, the OCA lunch organisers acted as intermediaries for Hepatitis SA. The key lunch organiser received an information briefing from Hepatitis SA staff the day before the activity. She was then provided with printed information and quiz sheets based on the online quiz. On the day itself, lunch participants were divided into smaller groups in separate rooms where the organisers went through the information with them before handing

them the quiz sheets to complete. Quiz entries were submitted on the spot and a draw made. The first all-correct entry drawn received a hamper. A link to the online quiz was also provided for those who wished to enter the draw for the Mount Lofty House prize offered with the online quiz. In contrast to the OCA’s distanced face-to-face activity, the class of Chinese TAFE students which accepted our offer, chose to do a Let’s Go Viral session during their Zoom lesson. Hepatitis SA’s viral hepatitis nurse, Bin, was invited to join the class and was given the platform to talk about the different viruses and the diseases they cause. This was followed by a Q&A before the class tested what they had learnt by doing the quiz online. Participants had lots of

questions such as: how long hepatitis B immunity lasts after vaccination, where they could get various vaccinations, how and where to get tested, whether Hepatitis SA screening clinics included hepatitis C testing, how children can get catch-up hepatitis B vaccinations and whether it was possible to get HIV from mosquito bites. There were about 20 participants with some couples signing in on a shared account. v

Cecilia Lim

The Let’s Go Viral Zoom session in action

What is World Hepatitis Day?

World Hepatitis Day (WHD) takes places every year on 28 July, bringing the world together under a single theme to raise awareness of the global burden of viral hepatitis and to influence real change. Worldwide, 290 million people are living with viral hepatitis, many unaware that they are infected. Without finding the undiagnosed and linking them to care, millions will continue to suffer, and lives will be lost. On World Hepatitis Day, members of the World Hepatitis Alliance call on people from across the world to take action and raise awareness to find the “missing millions”. WHD is a day for the world’s hepatitis community to unite and make our voices heard. It’s a day to celebrate the progress we have made and to meet the current challenges. It’s also an opportunity for us to increase awareness and encourage real political change to jointly facilitate prevention, diagnosis and treatment. v