It takes place at Montebello Park in St. Catharines on Friday
World Hepatitis Day is next Tuesday and this Friday Niagara Health is inviting community residents to Montebello Park in St. Catharines from 11am to 3pm to access free hepatitis C screening and learn about available support services.
The initiative is aimed at raising awareness of viral hepatitis.
"Many people who are living with Hepatitis C have no idea they're infected with the virus," says Ryan Blodgett, Clinical Supervisor at Niagara Health. "Symptoms can be very insidious and most people are actually non-symptomatic for the majority of the time that they have Hepatitis C until it reaches the end-stage issues."
Blodgett also says there's somewhat of an inaccurate stigma that Hepatitis only impacts who are street level and using drugs. He says the disease affects all walks of life, and some cases were transmitted during blood transfusions prior to mandatory screening.
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