Through our involvement with the Victorian Hepatitis B Alliance, MHSS developed working partnerships with Cancer Council Victoria and General Practice Victoria, and secured external funding for a community awareness partnership with these agencies, targeting Chinese and Vietnamese communities in high-prevalence suburbs with social marketing, community diffusion and resource development activities.
The campaign included radio advertising in Cantonese, Mandarin and Vietnamese, and the distribution via community festivals and ethnic print media of Lunar New Year’s calendars and information cards in Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Vietnamese and English. The information cards contain basic messages about hep B for patients, along with text in English mentioning the three tests a GP should order to correctly diagnose hep B status and referring them to HepBHelp for support. The calendar provides messages about vaccination, liver screening and hep B treatment, supporting family conversation in the privacy of the home elaborating on the campaign call-to-action.