YORKTON — Saskatchewan Health Authority staff parked their mobile health services van outside the Yorkton Public Library on July 28, offering free hepatitis and HIV testing, health information, and a barbecue lunch as part of National Hepatitis Day and World Hepatitis Day activities.
Community members were invited to learn about viral hepatitis, access testing services and enjoy free hot dogs and cold drinks while speaking with health-care staff about prevention, treatment and available supports.
Diana Bartok, HIV strategy co-ordinator with the Saskatchewan Health Authority, said the event was designed to increase awareness about hepatitis C and encourage residents to learn their status.
“Most folks don't necessarily think that they're at risk for, in particular, hepatitis C,” Bartok said. “People born between 1945 and 1975 should at least be tested once in their life.”
The mobile clinic offered testing to anyone interested and provided information about services available through Turning Point, the SHA's harm-reduction and support program in Yorkton.
“We certainly offer the testing to whomever was interested,” Bartok said. “We also had HIV self-testing kits available as well.”
National Hepatitis Day is observed every July 28 alongside World Hepatitis Day, a global awareness campaign held on the birthday of Dr. Baruch Blumberg, the scientist who discovered the hepatitis B virus and developed the first hepatitis B vaccine.
According to international health organizations, viral hepatitis affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide and contributes to approximately 1.3 million deaths annually. The campaign aims to promote testing, vaccination and treatment while reducing stigma associated with the disease.
Health officials say awareness remains particularly important in Saskatchewan, where hepatitis C rates have historically exceeded the national average.
Research presented as part of Saskatchewan's hepatitis C elimination efforts found the province recorded a hepatitis C rate of 38.5 cases per 100,000 population in 2022, compared with a national rate of 18.4 cases per 100,000. Indigenous people in Saskatchewan have also been identified as disproportionately affected by hepatitis C.
Dr. Almed Faress, a medical health officer with the Saskatchewan Health Authority, said many people are unaware they could have been exposed to hepatitis C because the infection often produces few or no symptoms.
“The only way to know your hepatitis C status is to be tested,” Faress said. “Hepatitis C can impact different people in the community.”
Faress said misconceptions about who is at risk can discourage testing.
“A lot of times hepatitis C can impact people that maybe don't see themselves as engaging in high-risk sexual behaviour,” he said.
He noted that modern treatments have changed the outlook for people diagnosed with the disease.
“We know that it is a treatable condition,” Faress said. “We have really good treatment options with very high success rates.”
Bartok said part of the challenge is overcoming stigma and helping people understand that risk factors can extend beyond injection drug use.
“We often forget what we've done in our younger days,” she said. “Sometimes it could be getting a tattoo at a fair back in the '70s or '80s … and hepatitis C could have been spread that way.”
Faress added that people who received blood transfusions before screening became routine could also have been exposed without knowing it.
“Blood transfusions weren't screened for hepatitis C in the '70s and '80s,” he said. “Anyone who may have received a blood transfusion at that time could have been exposed to Hep C without necessarily knowing.”
In addition to testing and treatment services, Turning Point provides connections to housing, identification, income assistance, addictions supports, harm-reduction programs and sexual health education. Bartok said the organization's mobile unit allows staff to bring those services directly into the community.
“We kind of push it all into that van and we go out and about in Yorkton,” she said.
Faress said community education remains one of the most important tools in reducing infections and encouraging people to seek care.
“It's not a lifelong sentence,” he said of hepatitis C. “It's something we can test for and it's something that's treatable.”
Health officials encourage residents seeking more information about hepatitis and other sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections to speak with their health-care provider or visit provincial sexual health resources online.
