EMPOWER REACHES 500 PEOPLE

The Hepatitis NSW Empower project has now reached over 500 unique enrollments in the last 14 months.

The Empower project provides peer-implemented hepatitis C antibody testing using INSTI one minute antibody tests. The Empower Team attended our regular Ashfield and Parramatta outreach venues recently. The Ashfield outreach was huge, with 45 people tested, while Parramatta was smaller but somehow busier, with 18 people tested in a shorter session.

The Empower team also attended an activation at Jarrah House, a residential drug and alcohol rehabilitation service. Jarrah House is an all-female facility, and Hepatitis NSW take an all-female team. Twelve women live there at any given time. The activation included an education session run by a nurse, with a hepatitis C “Spin the Wheel” question and answer game, before conducting the testing. It’s a lovely supportive space, and every resident decided to come forward for testing. This level of engagement is awesome.

We typically visit every 10 to 12 weeks, which works well because it aligns with the residents’ own 12-week program. We manage to catch everyone either as they arrive or before their graduation day, since people progress through the program at different speeds. It’s really about what works for the resident. The residents were very engaged, curious, and eager to learn how to look after themselves and stay safe, with lots of harm reduction discussions.

The Empower project is a research sub-study of the Kirby Institute’s National Hepatitis C Point of Care Testing Program.

LIVED EXPERIENCE ENGAGEMENT WORKSHOP

Hepatitis Australia hosted the first of a series of Community and Consumer Engagement Framework Workshops with all state and territory hepatitis member organisations in Melbourne on 3 December 2024.

The purpose of the workshop was to establish a best practice model in advancing lived experience voices and having inclusive participation from the community drive outcomes which benefit those affected by viral hepatitis.

As the first of three workshops designed to address this issue, there was an abundance of enthusiasm and focus in discussing a collective response and call to action supporting a non-stigmatising, non-tokenistic framework which can be used to ensure lived experience is properly utilised across the sector.
Key takeaways from the day were to:

• Increase communication across hepatitis organisations at every level
• Address barriers to meaningful inclusion of lived experience communities
• Ensure practical policies and procedures are implemented that encourage lived experience engagement
• Grow and value lived experience peer workforces

Hepatitis NSW’s Aboriginal Community Engagement officer, Maia, summed up the collective efforts of those involved:

“It was great to see all the aspects of Hepatitis Australia come together and meet, and how people with lived experience are changing the landscape of what a lived experience person is capable of. I thought it was a really enriching day and was glad to be surrounded by so many people who are like minded in wanting to collaborate and codesign from a national perspective”

The next workshop will take place in January 2025.

ANYONE FOR CRICKET?

Blacktown City Council organised an event featuring a live stream of the India versus Australia Test Match on Sunday 8 December. The event included food stalls, health information stalls, and educational booths from organisations like the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) and Blacktown Library. There were also diabetes education and cholesterol screening stations.

Hepatitis NSW teamed up with the Storr Liver Centre and conducted hepatitis C testing and fibroscans through the point-of-care program, which provides results within an hour. We saw great interest from the community. Many people had good questions and shared their stories, showing high engagement and curiosity about their liver health.

Overall, the community’s response was very positive, with many people eager to get tested for hepatitis B as well. The event was a success, with excellent acceptability and participation from the community.

TAKE PART IN NEW NATIONAL SURVEY FOR PEOPLE LIVING WITH HEPATITIS B

People living with hepatitis B can experience a range of everyday issues and problems. This includes small, day-to-day issues or it may involve larger challenges.
The Health+Law Legal Needs Study (LeNS) is the first ever national survey of these everyday issues for people living with hepatitis B. It aims to increase access to justice, and improve the health and wellbeing of people living with hepatitis B.

To participate, you must be:

• over 18 years of age
• living with hepatitis B
• living in Australia

The survey takes about 20 minutes to complete, and all participants can enter a draw to win a $250 gift voucher. Responses are completely anonymous, and no identifying information is collected.

Health+Law is made up of a team of researchers based at UNSW, UTS and QUT, working in partnership with ASHM, HALC, Hepatitis Australia and NAPWHA.

To learn more or to complete the survey click here.

The survey closes January 15 2025. Please share with anyone who might be interested.

HEPATITIS C IN AUSTRALIA MORE THAN HALVED IN LESS THAN A DECADE

The new surveillance report from the Kirby Institute reveals marked reductions in people living with hepatitis C.

• Hepatitis C in Australia has decreased by 58% since 2015.
• More than 100,000 Australians have received curative hepatitis C treatments.
• There were 1,740 new hepatitis C infections in 2023.
• Only 8% of people living with hepatitis C in 2023 had received treatment.
• Current hepatitis C infection among people attending needle and syringe programs has declined from 51% in 2015 to 12% in 2023.
• It is estimated that hepatitis C reinfections accounted for more than half of all transmissions.
• One in 10 people who are incarcerated in Australia have current hepatitis C infection.
• The hepatitis C diagnosis rate remained six times higher among First Nations Australians, compared with non-Indigenous Australians.

In 2023, there were an estimated 68,890 people living with hepatitis C in Australia, down 58% from 162,590 at the end of 2015, according to a new report released by the Kirby Institute at UNSW Sydney, available here: HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmissible infections in Australia: Annual surveillance report 2024 | Kirby Institute

“These marked reductions follow the introduction of highly curative treatments for hepatitis C in 2016,” says Professor Greg Dore, head of the Viral Hepatitis Clinical Research Program at the Kirby Institute. “Since then, more than 100,000 Australians have received curative treatment. This, alongside existing primary prevention strategies, has produced a dramatic decline in new infections.”

“The higher cure rates with the new treatments are very encouraging, however we must improve prevention, including community-led support and harm reduction programs, and increase the proportion of people receiving treatment, if we are to equitably achieve all hepatitis C elimination targets,” says Lucy Clynes, CEO of Hepatitis Australia. “Enhanced promotion and availability of hepatitis C treatments are needed, including in prisons, which remain environments of increased hepatitis C transmission. This is no longer a disease that people just have to live with. Enhanced access to prevention and hepatitis C testing and treatment is crucial.”

Follow this link for the Kirby Institute’s media release with more comment and details: Hepatitis C in Australia more than halved in less than a decade.

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