The provincial government, through the Ministry of Health, announced a viral hepatitis testing and awareness campaign on July 28 and will continue until August 4. Notably, scientific developments have enabled prevention and treatment tools.
In Venado Tuerto, these tests will be performed from 7 am to 10 am without prior appointment or medical order at “Dr. Tuerto”. Gutiérrez” at 1311 Avenida Santa Fe.
Although in the Americas, there are approximately 80,000 new cases of hepatitis B and C infection each year, Argentina is a low prevalence country with less than 2% detection rate for hepatitis B and less than 2% for hepatitis C less than 1%.
Sebastián Torres, Undersecretary of Health Promotion, emphasized that “there has been a decrease in the number of hepatitis B cases reported in the province over the past 10 years since 2013 when we had 120 cases recorded annually, with 40 cases reported last year. cases, this was caused by vaccination”.
Likewise, Torres emphasized that “since 2015, the number of patients has decreased as the treatment guaranteed a cure rate of more than 90 percent.”
“It’s also important to note that hepatitis A is no longer a public health problem due to the population being vaccinated and the province seeing an average of fewer than four cases per year,” he said.
The official explained, “Hepatitis can be caused by a viral infection, which is why we work on awareness and prevention of the disease from different angles: on the one hand with hepatitis A and hepatitis B vaccination campaigns, on the other. Carry out activities for early detection of hepatitis. “For hepatitis B and C, we take the initiative to carry out free and non-shift testing throughout the province.”
“As with many other diseases, washing hands and using drinking water are preventive measures,” concludes Sebastian Torres.