The Champion Community: Issue 62

This issue:

Hep B Digital Storytelling Project a huge success at WSU
Korean Women’s Night
Hep A is in the news – but what is it?
Survey prize draws equal big smiles all around

Also:

Liver cancer a big concern in developed nations

The Champion | #62 June 2018 | Community Edition

Hep B Digital Storytelling Project a huge success at WSU

At Hepatitis NSW, we are always thinking of innovative ways to work with the community. This year, our thirst for exploring new paths led us to create the Digital Storytelling Project, our first collaboration with Western Sydney University.

With help from university lecturers, Hepatitis NSW co-designed a unique filmmaking course specifically focused on hep B. Over six weeks, 16 students took part in the course to create their own hep B awareness videos.

At the end of the course, it was obvious that the students had gained a lot from taking part in the project. All submitted videos were of excellent quality and discussed hep B in a thought provoking manner. It was great to observe the diversity of the final products too – some students chose to approach hep B in a light-hearted and comical manner, whilst others took a more serious perspective.

We thoroughly enjoyed working with Western Sydney University, and look forward to our next joint project.

Are you interested in watching the students’ videos, and learning a little bit more about hep B? Keep an eye out for our next issue, where we will share the link with you!

Korean Women’s Night – B together B healthy B beautiful

A free women’s only event presented by Hepatitis NSW – in partnership with many other organisations and agencies – was held in Strathfield in early June. It was an opportunity for participants to enjoy performances and artwork by Korean women artists, and to learn important women’s health information about breast screening and also about hepatitis B.

The evening was a great success with more than 160 women attending. Our speaker Sofia Jung shared her personal story and the Hep B Story video from Hepatitis Queensland was screened with Korean subtitles. Show bags filled with hep B information were handed out to everyone.

Renee Moreton, Senior Manager of Population Health Sydney Local Health District, gave the welcome speech on the night, and the audience enjoyed performances from Chromaharp and the Good Friend’s Choir. The evening provided another great opportunity for Hepatitis NSW to reach out to the Korean community with important health information.

Hep A is in the news – but what is it?

You might have seen hepatitis A popping up in the news a lot lately, but what is it? You might have heard about hep A in relation to frozen pomegranates or frozen berries. Hepatitis A is a virus that lives in poo and can be transmitted when food is contaminated with infected sewerage.

Hep A can sometimes make you very sick for a few weeks. In very few cases, hep A can cause very serious liver damage.

But there’s good news! Hepatitis A is only ever going to be a short-term illness. This means that your body will recover and fight the virus off. You can’t get lifelong hep A and will not remain infectious after you’ve fought it off. There is no treatment for hep A while your body battles with the virus other than resting, drinking plenty of water and avoiding alcohol.

Importantly, you can get vaccinated against hep A, so you don’t have to worry of getting getting the virus. If you’re travelling overseas to particular countries, where hep A is much more common, getting vaccinated will stop hep A from ruining your holiday. It’s particularly important for people with hep B, hep C or liver damage, or men who have sex with men, to get vaccinated for hep A.

You can chat to your GP about getting a hep A vaccination or checking if you’ve got hep A immunity.

Looking for more information on hepatitis A? Give us a call on the free and anonymous Hepatitis Infoline 1800 803 990 for more information.

Survey prize draws equal big smiles all around

Prize draws equals big smiles all around

We’re always keen to make sure our resources are useful and relevant for our readers. That’s why we ask people to give us feedback via survey forms – with the added bonus that they can also go into a draw for a number of $100 Coles/Myer gift cards.

There are plenty of place where you can provide your feedback: