In acknowledgement of World Hepatitis Day on 28 July 2023 the Hepatology team will be mobile testing in Plymouth City Centre to raise awareness around the Hepatitis C virus.  

Jayne Roue, Manager for the Elimination of Hepatitis C in the South West said: “We have a great opportunity to eliminate the Hepatitis C Virus and it is important for us to bring this care to the community, as it allows us to reach people who usually do not engage with health services.  

“This is the fifth large scale event that the team have organised in Plymouth, and we hope to do more work focusing on at-risk areas such as recycling centres, homeless and refugee centres. The team continue to test more and more patients, and this has resulted in a dramatic reduction in people going on to develop serious liver disease.”  

Jayne continued: “It’s wonderful to see the community pull together, we have had amazing success working with primary care, charities, drug & alcohol and vulnerable peoples services over the years and this will continue to elimination in 2025.     

Testing is performed simply by taking a finger prick blood sample, this then gets tested for Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, HIV and Syphilis.  

NHS England has stated that they want to achieve the elimination of Hepatitis C by 2025, and the team is working tirelessly to achieve this, the following events are planned where you can access free testing:  

Friday 28 July: The Plaza Plymouth 9.30am to 3pm – Opposite Dingles

Saturday 5 August: Plymouth Pride 9.30am to 3pm – Central Park  

You can also order a home self-testing kit here.  

For more information on symptoms and causes of Hep C see https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/hepatitis-c/symptoms/