Hep C & HIV NUAA Admin Hep C & HIV NUAA Admin

High intensity hep C testing in NSW prisons 

This year, NUAA outreach workers have participated in 2 successful high-intensity testing campaigns in NSW Correctional Centres. In April, the HITC crew were in Nowra at the South Coast Correctional Centre where over 90% of the population received a hep C test. This was followed by another successful event at the Bathurst Correctional Centre in June.

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Hep C & HIV NUAA Admin Hep C & HIV NUAA Admin

The ABC of hep C

Hepatitis means 'inflammation of the liver'. The liver is a vital organ — it does over 500 things, including detoxing the body of the poisons in medications, pollution and processed foods; storing iron and other vitamins; storing energy from food and releasing it when you need it; and defending against germs like flus and colds.

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Hep C & HIV NUAA Admin Hep C & HIV NUAA Admin

More than 600 people tested for hep C by Peers on Wheels 

In late March, the Peers on Wheels (POW) project carried out its 600th Point of Care Test (POCT) for the hep C virus. The POW project is an ongoing 1-year pilot scheme by NUAA — in partnership with The Kirby Institute, NSW Health, and selected Local Health Districts — to bring hep C testing and treatment to people who inject drugs, wherever they are in NSW.

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Aunty Libby says: “Get tested! Get treated!”

Hep C isn’t nice. It makes you feel permanently sick and run down. There are reasons, however, why people might be reluctant about getting treated. Before 2016, the main treatment was Interferon. As Aunt Libby — an Aboriginal elder and grandmother of 13 (soon to be 14) — explains, that treatment could feel worse than the illness it was curing. The good news is that the new treatment (a box of pills called “Direct Acting Antivirals” or DAAs) is much easier: fewer pills, no injections and much fewer side effects. Furthermore, they are free or cheap, and if you get reinfected you can do the treatment again — as many times as you need to. Aunt Libby has had both hep C treatments. In this article she compares the 2 and says, “I’d recommend this treatment to anyone. But Interferon, they can forget about that one!”

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Hep C & HIV NUAA Admin Hep C & HIV NUAA Admin

POW! Breaking barriers to hep C care in the Suburbs

Through the Peers on Wheels (POW) project, NUAA has partnered with The Kirby Institute, NSW Health, and selected Local Health Districts, to work towards eliminating hep C through outreach, testing and offering treatment options. At the heart of the project is a van, with a Point of Care Testing (POCT) machine and a skilled peer workforce. The aim is to remove barriers to hep C treatment among people who inject drugs by going to where people live and providing the service without stigma. The POW team has visited various regional cities and towns and rural communities around NSW, but Users News caught up with them in Riverwood in the suburbs of Sydney.

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I said, “I'll use more drugs and deal with my hep C tomorrow.” But tomorrow turned into 10 years. | Kate’s story 

Kate is a proud Aboriginal woman who has a history of injecting heroin. She wants to share her unique experience of clearing hep C twice, nearly 2 decades apart. Her first treatment was in prison in the early 2000s, with Interferon. Soon after she got out of prison, she got hep C again and didn’t get treated until 2019. Getting treated a second time has been life changing for her and she now supports peers with hep C and drug use.

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Peers On Wheels: the new van that is revolutionising hep C healthcare | Interview with MJ 

Peers On Wheels (POW) is a new pilot project NUAA has launched. The project delivers mobile peer-led testing and treatment services for hepatitis C (hep C). POW is friendly, confidential, quick and easy. POW is visiting a bunch of places in NSW over the coming months. To help spread the word to peers, we interviewed MJ, the project’s Coordinator. 

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