It’s Your Right in SA

New hep C testing/treatment campaign’s successes

The Eliminate Hepatitis C Australia Partnership (EC Australia) was created in 2018 to bring together researchers, scientists, government, health services and community organisations to work toward eliminating hepatitis C as a public health threat in Australia by 2030 (see last issue for more).

Continue reading “It’s Your Right in SA”

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

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.

Continue reading “When treatment, and everything else, goes wrong: David’s story”

Five Years of CNP Peers: Part 1

Among its other services, Hepatitis SA runs four Clean Needle Program (CNP) sites in Adelaide, at Hackney, Noarlunga, Port Adelaide, and Salisbury. Our CNP peer educators also attend rostered sessions at other sites at various times during the week.

Continue reading “Five Years of CNP Peers: Part 1”

Keep Calm and Carry Naloxone

Most accidental overdoses in Australia—especially South Australia—are from prescription drugs, mainly painkillers and sleeping tablets. Many of these deaths can be prevented with a drug that reverses the effects of opioids.

From 1 December 2019 to February 2021, South Australia is taking part in a PBS-subsidised pilot program to reduce opioid-related deaths by making the life-saving medicine, naloxone, available to more people.

Continue reading “Keep Calm and Carry Naloxone”