Policies & Research

Treating Fibrosis with Henna

Henna is natural dye, orange-red in colour, made from the powdered leaves of Lawsonia inermis and was being used in body art, and as a dye for hair, nails and …

Hepatitis B remains a global public health problem, even in countries like Australia with universal childhood vaccination. For people who have been infected, and who now live with chronic hepatitis B, …

UK Shows the Power of Opt-Out Testing

Thousands of Britons have been found to have been living with previously undiagnosed hepatitis and HIV under a new testing system recently introduced in accident and emergency departments by the …

Understanding Clinical Trials in MASLD

Involvement in a clinical trial may provide access to new treatments and provide participants with a higher level of clinical care, which many people with fatty liver find beneficial.

Pig-to-Human Liver Transplant Shows Mixed Success

Part of a liver from a genetically engineered pig has been transplanted into a living human recipient, who then survived a further six months before dying from repeated upper gastrointestinal …

While We Wait for a Hepatitis B Cure – Screen More, Treat More, Treat Earlier

The hepatitis B virus (HBV) is notoriously hard to get rid of. The virus embeds its covalently closed circular DNA (the cccDNA) in the liver, integrating itself into the host …

How Machine Learning Can Help Discover Anti-Hepatitis C Drugs

Finding a single novel molecule for drug development can take years. Machine learning can help process billions of molecules in a day, and aid drug discovery against viral illnesses that …

High Hep C Cure Rate Among NSP Clients

Findings from the Australian Needle and Syringe Program (NSP) Survey 30-year National Data Report shows highly significant reductions in hepatitis C infections and high levels of treatment and cure among …

Birth-Dose Vaccination Crucial to Prevention of Chronic Hepatitis B in Children

Hepatitis Australia and ASHM have released a statement reminding all Australians of the importance of hepatitis B vaccinations to protect the health and wellbeing of children. The statement pointed out …

Cutting Out Hep B with ‘Molecular Scissors’

A genetic peculiarity that is sometimes found in biochemistry is ‘covalently closed circular DNA‘ (cccDNA), where the DNA molecule, instead of being a long, ribbon-like strand, becomes a closed loop. …

Hep C & Mental Illness: New Link Discovered

The blood–brain barrier is a hugely effective “wall” that protects the brain from pathogens in a person’s body. It’s like a highly selective, very fine sieve that allows vital nutrients …

How Hep B Research Helped when COVID-19 Hit

As the coronavirus spread globally in 2020, and people all around the world began to be uncomfortably familiar with RAT tests and PCR tests, NSW historian Michelle Bootcov realised her …

Progress on Closing the Gap is stagnant or going backwards. Here are 3 things to help fix it

The Productivity Commission’s latest data on Closing the Gap progress represents an unsurprisingly grim overview of the socioeconomic inequalities experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Improving Surveillance of Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Australia

The incidence of primary liver cancer in Australia has quadrupled since 1982—faster than any other cancer. Yet, the 5-year survival remains just 22%, in stark contrast to countries like Japan, …