World Hepatitis Day is this Saturday, July 28th. Why do we need World Hepatitis Day? For starters, 90 percent of people living with viral hepatitis are unaware of it.

According to the World Hepatitis Alliance (WHA), 290 million are living with hepatitis B or hepatitis C without knowledge of this. WHA recognizes that unless there is a massive increase in screening, diagnosis and linkage to care, more people will become infected and lives will continue to be lost.

To combat this, WHA is launching “Find the Missing Millions,” a three-year global awareness-raising and advocacy campaign aimed at tackling the main barriers to diagnosis. WHA’s quest is to contribute towards the World Health Organization’s elimination target of a 30 percent diagnosis rate by 2020. Find out more about the campaign here, and be sure to join the quest.

If you think the “Find the Missing Millions” campaign doesn’t apply to you, because you are not an organization or in health care or whatever, think again. Perhaps you just happen to be reading this and may be thinking, “What can I possibly do?” Let me assure you, you can help find the missing millions. Ask every baby boomer you know or anyone who might have a risk factor for hepatitis C or hepatitis B to get tested.

Able to do more? WHA offers a host of tools and a webinar to help you with your advocacy efforts.