The Café Latino of Central Florida recognizes May 15 as National Hispanic Hepatitis Awareness Day.  This day is set aside to push forward our commitment to bring awareness of hepatitis and engage our communities in a strong and fruitful response to a preventable viral hepatitis epidemic. The theme for the first ever National Hispanic Hepatitis Awareness Day in 2012 is “Let’s Talk about Hepatitis”.

In recognition of National Hispanic Hepatitis Awareness Day, Café Latino of Central Florida is providing free hepatitis testing and hepatitis vaccines during the “Health Fair” taking place on Saturday, May, 19 from 10:00am to 3:00pm at Harvest Time International located at 225 N. Kennel Road, Sanford, FL 32771. During this event Café Latino also wants to raise awareness and increase knowledge of HIV/AIDS.  Florida would like to test 112,000 Latinos by 2012 for HIV/AIDS.

Additional free testing will be provided such as confidential HIV testing, glucose testing, STD screenings, blood pressure and BMI screenings and also provide health education and resource information.

In 2009, Latinos, the fastest-growing minority population in the US, received a diagnosis of hepatitis A twice as often as non-Hispanic whites. As compared to non-Hispanic whites in the same age group, Latinos age 40 and over are 30% more likely to contract hepatitis B.
Although Latinos are diagnosed less frequently with hepatitis C than non-Hispanic whites, viral hepatitis is twice more often a cause of death for Latinos than it is for non-Hispanic whites and Latinos have higher prevalence rates of hepatitis C. Because of social and economic issues, including the lack of access to care, Latinos also have more rapid build-up of liver scarring than non-Hispanic whites. For example, Puerto Ricans with hepatitis C advance towards cirrhosis at  a younger age than other populations.

For more information on the National Hispanic Hepatitis Awareness Dayvisit www.hispanichepatitisday.org.
For more information about the event please call 407-858-1400 extension 1146.