HepSAY
hepatitis news and views from SA
Author Cecilia LimPosted on Categories UncategorisedLeave a comment on Hepatitis C – Australia likely to miss targets Despite having been one of the countries leading in the global campaign to eliminate viral hepatitis, Australia may now not meet its 2022 national hepatitis C treatment target or the 2030 global target.
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Author Cecilia LimPosted on Categories UncategorisedLeave a comment on Hepatitis B Targets – Australia 23 years behind on care, 24 on treatment Australia still has a long way to go to achieve its National Hepatitis B Strategy targets aimed at eliminating the disease by 2030.
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In a rare alignment, the Australian 2021 World Hepatitis Day campaign is adopting the message of the global campaign. This year, both global and national campaigns are telling you: hepatitis can’t wait.
The COVID-19 pandemic has seen a common outcome in one aspect of healthcare – people with minor or chronic illnesses putting off seeing their healthcare providers. Unfortunately, for some conditions, there can be dire consequences if you wait. Hepatitis is one of those.
Author Cecilia LimPosted on Categories UncategorisedLeave a comment on Testing… Testing — New HCV testing technologies Hepatitis C tests are getting easier. That’s the promise on the horizon as new testing methods are introduced or trialed.
Current conventional hepatitis C testing consists of a blood test for hepatitis C antibodies, followed by a PCR test for the hepatitis C RNA, if antibody test comes back positive. There is the usual waiting period of a week or more after each test. For busy people or transient populations, that poses a challenge. Others are put off by the need to draw blood.
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Author Cecilia LimPosted on Categories UncategorisedLeave a comment on Hepatitis B Treatment—not necessarily a life-long commitment There is a common view that once you start hepatitis B treatment, you will be on it for life. This is changing. In recent years, numerous studies have been done looking into the notion of functional cure for hepatitis B which, when achieved, means therapy can be stopped.
Continue reading “Hepatitis B Treatment—not necessarily a life-long commitment”Author Cecilia LimPosted on Categories UncategorisedLeave a comment on Still Out There – hep C which has a cure & hep B which has a vaccine… In these COVID-focused times, it is worth remembering that there are other viruses out there, active in our community. World Hepatitis Day reminds us that over 226,500 Australians – including over 12,000 South Australians – live with the hepatitis B virus, and the hepatitis C virus still affects the health of 114,000 Australians despite the availability of highly effective Medicare-funded treatments.
While South Australia has done well in treating people with chronic hepatitis C, the rate of treatment uptake has been dropping dramatically; and our state’s hepatitis B clinical care uptake is below national average, and well below the National Strategy target.
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