Sydney’s Vietnamese community has welcomed the New Year Tet festival with red envelopes containing health messages on hepatitis B and small gifts from the South Western Sydney Local Health District at Fairfield Showground on 23-25 February.
Local Health District Health Education Officer, Uyen Truong, presented the lucky envelopes at the festival and spoke to the community about protecting their health by learning more about hepatitis B.
“Hepatitis B is common in many culturally diverse communities, including our own,” she said. “Most people with hepatitis B don’t have symptoms and many don’t know they have it. We hope to raise awareness and put hepatitis B on our community’s agenda."
MHAHS Cultural Support Officer, Kim Trang, was at the event with her colleague Ann Nguyen to answer possible questions about the epidemic from the public.
“This was a very positive experience. So many people stopped by to chat with us about hepatitis B. Some wanted more information about their ongoing hepatitis B treatment in their own language while others shared their stories about their treatment. Many liked getting their hands on the red envelope and taking their pictures at the photo booth which generated photos with hepatitis B messages on them,” said Ms Kim.
There are more than 239,000 people living with chronic hepatitis B in Australia with about 84,000 in NSW. Nearly 40 per cent of them don’t know they have the virus. Untreated, chronic hepatitis B can cause serious liver damage and liver cancer.
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