The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services will offer free rapid hepatitis C and HIV testing in Jefferson City beginning late Thursday morning.
The tests will be available 11 a.m.-1p.m. in the state’s mobile public response unit, which is to be parked on the south side of the state Capitol.
“Millions of Americans have chronic viral hepatitis; most of them do not know they have it,” a DHSS news release states. “The goal of Hepatitis Testing Day is to help raise awareness and to encourage more individuals to learn their status. It is a day for people at risk for viral hepatitis to be tested, and for health care providers to educate patients about viral hepatitis and testing.”
The state’s first hepatitis C elimination plan, the “Show Me the Cure” plan, is also scheduled to be unveiled Thursday among public health stakeholders. The plan will allow Missourians to have improved access to equitable testing and patient-centered treatment service against the hepatitis C virus. DHSS is working to eliminate hepatitis C in Missouri by ensuring universal testing, improving health care outcomes for people living with hepatitis C and preventing new infections.