Hepatitis C peer worker Kiah Glasson shares her story with Users News and gives the low down on all things hep C.

Reflections on the missing piece in the hepatitis C elimination puzzle: the supply of clean sterile injecting equipment in Australian correctional centres.

Golden staph is a nasty bug and surprisingly common — 8 out of 10 people have it on their skin. If you don’t swab, you can inject it into your bloodstream, and, as Sally explains, it’s not something you want in your bloodstream! So swab!

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.

A number of things come up for users at this time of year: organising pharmacotherapy doses and inter-state transfers; wondering if your dealer is going to be working on Christmas Day; sorting out injecting equipment when NSP hours change over Christmas as staff have a well-earned break! ...But for many of us, there is no break from being a user. And the holiday period brings additional health issues for users, particularly overdose prevention and bloodborne virus awareness.

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. 

Steroids can take the form of tablets, capsules, oral liquids and injectable liquids. Common slang terms for steroids include ‘roids’, ‘gear’ and ‘juice’. Steroids are synthetic substances that promote the growth of skeletal muscle.

This article takes a look at the effectiveness of filtering pills or capsules. These photographs were made using MS Contin and Kapanol mixed in cold water but can equally relate to Oxycontin and other pharmaceutical drugs. A note here: hot water is dangerous because it can appear to dissolve particles but these will reform later when cooled down - in your veins.  

Ice, crystal meth, shabu … whatever you call it, these tips will help you remain safe when you use it.

Some people who inject drugs don’t have much trouble finding veins, and don’t need to use a tourniquet, while others have always used them as part of their injecting practice. Other people decide to add tournies to their injecting routine as they get older and their veins get harder to find over time. We thought it was timely to do a bit of a review so people could develop or update skills and techniques in using tournies to get the most out of them. 

Legal and safety issues around drugs and sex work.

“I was so run down all the time, drugs were the only way to give me energy and improve my mood”

‘When I inject into my veins, it’s my way or the highway.’

“While I’ve caused myself a few “headaches” by taking safe using seriously, it’s helped me steer clear of some nasty “migraines” like bloodborne viruses.

“I asked some of my mob who are living in the country about sharing injecting equipment and why they do it - or more to the point, why they don't have new, sterile fits for every hit.”