Author: Cecilia Lim

Reaching Out to Baby Boomers

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Hepatitis Australia is currently developing a campaign to reach baby boomers and other community groups who may have been missed in past hepatitis C awareness raising efforts.

Almost eight out of ten people living with hepatitis C are not current injecting drug users. Although the majority of Australians who acquire hepatitis C did so through unsafe injecting, 67 per cent (124,590) of them are no longer injecting drug users.

Close to 230,000 people were living with hepatitis C at the end of 2015. Of these, 25,000 (11%) were born overseas in regions of high prevalence and almost 16,000 (7%) contracted the virus through transfusion of unscreened blood and blood products, unsterile medical procedures, or mother-to-child transmission.

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Handy Tool Simplifies Management of Hepatitis C Treatment

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One of the key planks of Australia’s hepatitis C elimination strategy is increasing treatment through management by General Practitioners (GPs), making it easier for individuals to receive treatment and facilitating access to hard-to-reach communities.

GP training programs have been rolled out across the country and GP prescribing had increased from 8 per cent in March to 31 per cent in December. However, most prescribing (62 per cent) are still by specialists and GP prescriptions in South Australia, Northern Territory, ACT and Victoria are significantly below average.

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World Hepatitis Day – a few things to think about during morning tea…

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In the ten minutes it took you to brew your morning cuppa and dunk your favourite bikkie, 25 people died. They were killed by viral hepatitis – part of the 152 people around the world, who die every hour from this treatable, preventable disease.

Locally, about 24 Australians die each week from hepatitis B or hepatitis C. Not as shocking as 25 in 10 minutes but that’s still 1,237 needless Australian deaths each year.

World Hepatitis Day (28 July) is a reminder that Australians cannot afford to rest on our laurels. Although 14 per cent of Australians with hepatitis C have been cured, there are still many, many who need to receive treatment.

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Many ways for South Australians to get hepatitis information

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South Australians are now getting viral hepatitis information in more ways than ever before.

In 2015-16 Hepatitis SA received orders from individuals for over 14,100 items of printed information; its website had over 29,380 page views.

In 2005, the organisation’s online presence was one small static website and information was disseminated mainly in printed form. Today Hepatitis SA has a two Twitter accounts, three Facebook pages, an online hepatitis C self-assessment tool, a WeChat account, and an AdelaideBBS account, all backed up by a dynamic website with regularly updated articles. This is an indication of the way health information provision has changed in the last decade.

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Need for Hepatitis Support Continues

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The need for support and information about hepatitis C brought together a small band of people in Adelaide some 20 years ago. That small group from the 90s grew to become today’s Hepatitis SA.

Providing support to people dealing with chronic hepatitis remains at the heart Hepatitis SA’s services. The close mutual support of the early days has developed into formal, on-going support groups, telephone support and face to face information sessions.

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Retirement for Hep B Bear?

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The stages of chronic hepatitis B infection has been given a makeover. Is it time for Hep B Bear to move aside?

The latest clinical practice guidelines for hepatitis B published by the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) not only set out recommended treatment protocols but also re-framed and re-named the phases of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection.

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