Saturday, May 19, is the first annual National Hepatitis Testing Day in the United States. This Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) educational campaign—a part of the agency’s “Know More Hepatitis” initiative—is aimed at ensuring that at-risk populations learn about and get tested for chronic viral hepatitis.

CDC’s Know More Hepatitis campaign was officially announced last year on World Hepatitis Day, July 28, at a special White House event to release the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Combating the Silent Epidemic of Viral Hepatitis: Action Plan for the Prevention, Care & Treatment of Viral Hepatitis. The plan calls for a national education campaign to educate people about viral hepatitis and encourage people to get tested. As part of this educational initiative, May 19 has been designated as national Hepatitis Testing Day in the United States.

The CDC will use the Hepatitis Testing Day as an opportunity to remind health care providers and the public who should be tested for chronic viral hepatitis. Millions of Americans have chronic hepatitis B or hepatitis C infection; most of them do not know they are infected.

The CDC websites for National Hepatitis Testing Day and the Know More Hepatitis campaign offer a range of educational resources for patients and physicians alike. These include fact sheets and posters, an online questionnaire to assess one’s risk for viral hepatitis, a dynamic map for finding the locations of nearby National Hepatitis Testing Day events across the United States, and a year-round database of viral hepatitis service providers.

Comprehensive, easy-to-read educational information about hepatitis B and hepatitis C is also available on hepmag.com, along with a searchable database of testing sites and related services for people living with, or at risk for, viral hepatitis infection.