The Champion #104 – March 2022

This issue:

1. HEP CURED Mobile Mural takes successful hep C health campaign on the road
2. New online hep C training launched
3. “Hep B Winners” – Korean online Hep B patients support group

HEP CURED Mobile Mural takes successful hep C health campaign on the road

The final piece of the highly successful HEP CURED health promotion and awareness campaign had its much delayed launch in Newcastle last week. The HEP CURED mobile mural takes the successful hepatitis C treatment awareness raising campaign on the road, literally, across NSW to promote the game-changing treatments that cures hepatitis C in up to 98% of cases. The aim of the HEP CURED mobile mural is to encourage NSW to get tested for, and get cured of hepatitis C.

The HEP CURED campaign, which launched in July 2021, is designed to prompt interest in hepatitis C testing, treatment, and cure. Once considered a chronic condition with life threatening health impacts, hep C is now easily cured with new effective and affordable treatments. Despite this, tens of thousands of people in NSW are living with the virus and remain unaware of these game-changing treatment options and pathways.

The HEP CURED Mobile Mural aims to get the message out there for everyone to see and encourage them to live their best life. The campaign does this by using simple messaging and strong imagery to promote the availability and effectiveness of cures for hepatitis C. The campaign imagery is about motivations for testing and treatment identified through research. These motivators can include a sense of connection with loved ones or significant others, being around to enjoy a healthy future, and being a responsible member of the community.

Boldly stating the HEP CURED message, a colourful, eye-catching mural, has been added to the other side of a truck mounted campaign billboard. Together they will be touring numerous rural towns as well as Sydney suburbs throughout March. The Mobile Mural will travel, and park, around carefully chosen sites to provide repeat exposure and to reinforce the messages, and encourage action on hepatitis C testing and treatment.

Starting in Newcastle, the HEP CURED Mobile Mural headed north to Coffs Harbour with a stop at Pete’s Place, for an event with our community hep C peer workers and Local Health District nurses and staff. Pete’s Place is a support centre for people experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness. The mural then headed to Tamworth and will then be in Bathurst, this weekend for AutoFest 2022.

Traveling onto Lithgow and Katoomba the Mobile Mural will then head back to Sydney for the second leg of its journey, before heading down south to Wollongong, Eden, Albury – and more – for its third and final leg.

The HEP CURED Mobile Mural not only seeks to spread the good news message that hepatitis C can be cured, but also provides information on how to get support and access treatment. It is also an opportunity to explain that many beliefs people may hold about previous testing and treatment arrangements no longer apply.

New hep C treatments give people the chance to be free of the virus, and to also be healthier, to be part of the future of their children and grandchildren.

Thanks to the ground-breaking direct acting anti-viral (DAA) medications, elimination of hepatitis C has become an achievable goal, in line with Australian and NSW Government commitments. We are within reach of achieving elimination of hep C by 2030. This will be an incredible achievement. It would mean a disease would have been discovered and eliminated in a single generation.
However, elimination will require the ongoing combined efforts of government, the health sector, and community to be fully realised.

So far, over 30,000 people in New South Wales have started treatment for hepatitis C since 2016. People who may be at risk of hepatitis C should speak to their local GP for testing or access at-home testing via www.health.nsw.gov.au/dbstest/Pages/order.aspx

The HEP CURED Mobile Mural will be tracked by, and can be followed on, our social media (Twitter: @HepatitisNSW | Instagram: @hepatitis_nsw | Facebook: HepNSW), documenting events stops and activities along the way using #hepcured, #mobilemural.

The full itinerary is also advertised on our Events Calendar >>>CLICK HERE.

HEP CURED has been developed by Hepatitis NSW in partnership with NUAA and the Ministry of Health.

For more information about HEP CURED>>>CLICK HERE

New online hep C training launched

Following on from our recent release of the Hepatitis B training module, Hepatitis NSW has now launched another online learning module! Our Hepatitis C Module has everything you need to know to get up-to-speed on this virus – transmission, testing and monitoring, treatment, and its social impacts – in an interactive, modern, and simple format. Best of all, it takes about 40-60 minutes to complete.

Hepatitis C has a larger profile in Australia than other forms of viral hepatitis, however there is still much to know and understand, and this course helps make it more accessible and easy to understand. If you’ve got new staff starting in the sector, this is a great introduction to the topic and will give them a solid starting point. Similarly, if it’s been a few years since you updated your knowledge on hep C then this is the perfect opportunity to refresh. Best of all, there’s a certificate of completion at the end to hang proudly on your wall!

This new module was designed specifically to give a non-medical, non-clinical introduction and overview of hepatitis C. The information is general in nature and aims to give those who work in and around hep C a basic introduction to the topic.

Course overview

1. What is hep C?
2. Hep C stats and transmission
3. Hep C testing and who might be at risk
4. Hep C Treatment
5. Stigma and discrimination
6. Take home messages
7. Certificate & Feedback

Currently, available information on hep C can overlook important aspects of transmission, treatment, and social impacts such as stigma. The virus is also is very different to hep B, and knowledge of one doesn’t always apply to the other. We expect this detailed introduction to the virus will give you a good foundation of understanding. While this information is available and open to all, the intended audience is those who work in the community sector including in homelessness services, alcohol and other drug services, youth services, and migrant community services. The content is not for clinical practice and is not to be considered medical advice.

There are questions and activities throughout to test your knowledge and reflect your learnings. Once completed, you have the option to return to the Hepatitis NSW website and complete further modules, or proceed to some additional resources.

• Access Hep C Training Module >>>CLICK HERE

We have smaller supplementary modules – covering COVID and viral hep, hepatitis A, and stigma and discrimination – still to come. Stay tuned for more online learning modules.

“Hep B Winners” – Korean online Hep B patients support group

Korean speakers living with hep B are invited to join in a new social chat group ‘Hep B Winners’.

Seven members who live in the Sydney metro area have already joined in, but we are hoping for many more to be part of the group. Discussions have so far included pregnancy and hep B, and how to get to liver clinic service without extra cost.

Members currently include Hepatitis NSW’s Lived Experience Speakers and the winners of Hep B Writing Competition which we held in 2021.
The purpose of this chat group is to share useful information, and to encourage each other with lifelong monitoring to manage hep B.

For anyone who you would like to join, or if you know someone who would benefit, please join in! You’ll need to install the Kakaotalk messenger app first.

• Hep B Winners>>> CLICK HERE