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In this October issue we send invites to our AGM, launch a new alliance, attend conferences, promote a new hep C campaign and more.
2025 Hepatitis NSW Annual General Meeting
The 34th Annual General Meeting of Hepatitis NSW Incorporated will be held in person as follows:
Time: 6:00 pm
Date: Thursday, 27 November 2025
Location: Café, Ground Floor, 414 Elizabeth St, Surry Hills NSW 2010
The AGM will include the announcement of the Cheryl Burman Award recipient.
RSVP deadline: 5pm Thursday 20 November 2025 to membership@hep.org.au
NSW Hepatitis B Alliance
In early October, Hepatitis NSW hosted the first online meeting of the NSW Hepatitis B Alliance. This new initiative is an effort by Hepatitis NSW to bring together the burgeoning hepatitis B sector and grow the focus on this critically under-resourced health issue.
We were delighted to have the brilliant Associate Professor Thomas Tu (left) as the first ever speaker, providing thoughtful and powerful insights on the central role of lived experience in the hepatitis B response. Thomas was followed by the equally fabulous Professor Loren Brener (right) presenting on the fascinating work at the Centre for Social Research in Health around attitudes towards people living with hepatitis B amongst multicultural communities.
This online forum is open to anyone and everyone interested in hepatitis B so please reach out to Kyle kleadbeatter@hep.org.au if you’d like to get an invite!
CALD Sexual Health Action Group (SHAG) Symposium 2025
This year’s symposium theme was Bridges not Barriers – Innovative Approaches to Multicultural Sexual Health and Wellbeing.
The Hepatitis NSW’s Hepatitis B and Multicultural Liver Health Team, Willis and Mina, conducted a tabletop presentation titled:
“Stories that Move Us: Principles and People Shaping the Hepatitis B Journey.”
The presentation covered an overview of the hepatitis B landscape in Australia, acknowledged key challenges and gaps in the field, outlined our principles for engaging with the hepatitis B community, and introduced our Write to Be Heard writing competition. The competition invites people living with hepatitis B to share their stories, helping communities to better understand their journeys, reduce stigma, and remind those working in the field that every patient is more than a number, they’re real people showing courage through their journey.
More information on Hepatitis NSW’s Write to be Heard can be found here.
NUAA Peers and Consumers Forum 2025
NUAA (New South Wales Users and Aids Association) held its annual Peers and Consumers (PaC) forum in Surry Hills on 23 & 24 September 2025. This year’s theme was ‘Two Steps Forward’ and aimed to “celebrate the strides we’ve made together in harm reduction, peer engagement, and breaking down stigma”.
The NUAA PaC is an annual calendar highlight. This year, Gracey, JD and Liam from Hepatitis NSW attended to gain contemporary insights on the issues impacting people who inject drugs, as well as catch up with friends and program partners from across the sector.
Each year NUAA creates a different theme, providing an interesting range of topics and speakers.
Keynote speakers included:
Tuari Potiki, Chair of the New Zealand Drug Foundation and Whare Tukutuku of the National Māori Addiction Centre. Tuari discussed different strategies and challenges to ‘Decolonising and Recolonising Harm Reduction’, providing some great insights into the work Māori people are doing to advance equitable health and harm reduction outcomes to their communities across Aotearoa.
Cameron Francis, CEO of The Loop discussed the historical context of drug laws, mainly in QLD, and how they were changing to accommodate services such as drug checking at festivals or various NSP and harm reduction sites.
Other highlights included multiple sessions celebrating those people who have been key Lived and Living Experience representatives for the AOD and harm reduction communities across many years. A feature was ‘Voices from Western Sydney’ provided unique perspectives from community members, AOD workers and peer workers from Middle-Eastern and Aboriginal backgrounds in how they utilise their cultural skills to strengthen community engagement and become respected advocates and leaders in localised AOD work.
One of the final sessions for the PaC ‘A Clinician’s Reimagining of Inclusive Care in AOD’ was part celebration, part call to action. It illustrated the critical importance, and the continuing successes for those that do, of offering genuine inclusive healthcare, harm reduction and treatment linkages and valuing of service user and partner experience and insight.
NUAA PaC 2025 was another well rounded offering of essential, informative and engaging activity and Hepatitis NSW looks forward to attending next year’s event.
Hepatitis Australia’s hep C New U Campaign
The New U – Pilot Hep C Campaign Launched
Our national peak organisation, Hepatitis Australia, has launched a new pilot hep C campaign in select locations in NSW, as well as Queensland and Tasmania.
The local campaign, in collaboration with Hepatitis NSW, is running from Monday November 10 to Friday December 12, and targets people at risk of hep C who do not currently inject drugs.
Run as a digital advertising campaign, it seeks to reach males aged over 45 years and will be visible across YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and various websites.
Check out the website, which includes videos and other info: heplink.au/newyou
This pilot campaign aims to increase engagement with hep C testing and treatment, and combat stigma and misconceptions about hep C.
At the end of 2023, there were 68,890 people living with hep C in Australia. While hep C is commonly understood as a condition impacting people who inject drugs, research from Hepatitis Australia shows that 84% of people living with hepatitis C in Australia no longer inject drugs or contracted hep C in other ways.
Australia must target unreached populations to achieve the nation’s hep C elimination goals, and the New U pilot campaign was developed with this aim. New U is part of Hepatitis Australia’s HepLink program – the national ‘front door’ to viral hepatitis support, treatment, and care, providing in-consultation, referral and linkage support for hep C: call 1800 437 222.
Hepatitis B Mothers and Babies
Hepatitis NSW has a great catalogue of helpful and informative resources including our popular Hepatitis B Mothers and Babies brochure.
This is an easy read brochure for pregnant women diagnosed with hep B during antenatal screening. Hep B diagnosis can be stressful for mums-to-be, and this resource helps to ease their concerns with reassuring info given in a confidential, non-judgmental and friendly format. Hepatitis B Mothers and Babies is written and designed for women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds but can be used by anyone. It is available in English and Chinese.
The brochure covers a description of hepatitis B, transmission and treatment options, how to protect your baby, and much more!
If you are a midwife, or an OB/GYN, or offer maternity or shared care services, please consider ordering copies for your clients.
To read the Hepatitis B Mothers and Babies brochure online or order FREE English copies >>>CLICK HERE or for the Chinese version >>>CLICK HERE
The Champion is our free monthly eNews with updates on hep C, hep B, treatment news, social media campaigns, living well with viral hepatitis, and events. To subscribe and receive a monthly edition of the The Champion to your inbox, please complete this confidential form:
