HepSAY

LiverWELL’s Aboriginal Healthy Living Guide: Helping you care for your liver and your mob

James MorrisonDecember 16, 2020December 21, 2020Uncategorisedexercise health healthy eating Indigenous liver healthLeave a comment

Caring for country and for collective wellbeing is something our First Nations have done for over 65,000 years. Building on that strength, and informed by community and artists, Hepatitis Victoria’s LiverWELL program have launched a customised guide that offers Indigenous Australians multiple tips and current links to support healthy living.

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COVID Etiquette

James MorrisonNovember 11, 2020November 17, 2020Uncategorisedcoronavirus covid-19 health healthy christmas immunosuppression therapy public healthLeave a comment

We all learn how to behave socially, and the rules vary based on our cultural backgrounds. We may shake hands, high-five, hug or air-kiss when greeting others. In some cultures, you never chew with your mouth open, while in others nobody really care. For some, it’s fine to toss money to the person you’re paying; for others that is extremely offensive.

In the current COVID situation, until there are effective vaccines or treatments, the only effective safeguard we have is being careful in how we interact with others: how we greet each other, how we behave in groups, how we project expectations of others’ behaviour, and how we react to unexpected situations.

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When treatment, and everything else, goes wrong: David’s story

James MorrisonOctober 26, 2020October 9, 2020Uncategorisedalcohol hepatitis C hepatitis C treatment injecting drug use liver cancer diagnosis personal storyLeave a comment

I have been reading the Hepatitis SA Community News for a long time, perhaps since its inception! I have always been interested to read other people’s stories of living with hep C. The time has come for me to tell my tale.

I have been living with the hep C virus for over 30 years, contracting it some time in the mid-to-late ‘80s. In my late teens and early twenties I discovered that injecting various drugs was a wonderful form of escape. My need to obliterate myself during this period was the result of having been sexually abused in my early teens by the leader of a NSW Church of England Boys Society group.

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Release Hep Funds to Meet Targets

James MorrisonOctober 9, 2020October 9, 2020Uncategorisedfunding health hepatitis B hepatitis C hepatitis C treatment policyLeave a comment

The Australian Government has used the delayed 2020 Federal Budget to commit to funding for several vital areas of hepatitis research, including pathogen genomics, prison-based interventions, and point-of-care testing. However, Australia’s hepatitis community has a right to view this commitment with some scepticism.

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Telling Your Story

James MorrisonSeptember 22, 2020September 22, 2020Uncategorisedpositive speakers storytelling substance abuseLeave a comment

Positive Speaker Kath Leane learns about autobiographical storytelling… Why do we tell stories? Write from the scar, not the wound. Deconstruct the negatives and find your strength.

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Newborn Resistance

James MorrisonJuly 2, 2020July 21, 2020Uncategorisedchildren hepatitis C newborns research transmissionLeave a comment

Exploring the low rate of HCV infection in newborns

Unlike other blood-borne viruses such as HIV and hepatitis B, the risk of a baby being infected with hepatitis C during the mother’s pregnancy or during birth is very low. Only about 5% of babies born to mothers who have hepatitis C are themselves infected by the disease.

Author: James Morrison