Australasian Viral Hepatitis Elimination Conference

A report back on Sinead Sheils, ‘Impact of Implementation of a Collaborative and Assertive HCV Focused Model of Care on Screening and Treatment Uptake, in a Metropolitan, Private Opioid Pharmacotherapy Clinic”.

A report back on Jacqui Richmond's presentation: Lifting the invisibility cloak: the role of nurses in Hepatitis C elimination

Nurses are a large group of Health Professionals with numbers in excess of 365,000 in Australia, including an estimated 1800 Nurse Practitioners but why is it that their contribution is invisible? Jacqui raised the uncomfortable question in a room of delegates dominated in numbers by nurses.

This is a report back on Mrs. Marrianne Black's presentation: More than just 12km: A comparison of the Chinese and Vietnamese Communities Living with hepatitis B in the Brisbane South PHN which was delivered at the Australasian Viral Hepatitis Elimination Conference 2019, which is included in the Oral Abstracts 2: Gains and Gaps: The Hepatitis response in CALD and Indigenous populations.

As a general practice nurse who serves many Chinese and Vietnamese people in our community, the presentation piqued my interest. It made me realise how important it is to find out more about health-seeking behaviours of certain ethnic groups, because it could potentially inform us how to better take care of them and manage their conditions.

A report back on Kerrin Param's session All stories matter in HCV elimination.

Since DAA Hep C treatment was made available on the PBS in 2016, we have seen increases in coordinated MDT efforts. The hepatology partnership model is one of those initiatives. They established community-based clinics in the areas of Caloundra to Bundaberg and in Maryborough prison. By establishing these community-based clinics, they broke down barriers and made Hep C treatment accessible and available to locals within those communities. 

A report back on Dr. Nada Andric's session: Treating hepatitis C in people with severe mental illness-challenges and victories in primary care delivered at the Hepatitis C in General Practice Forum.

I attended the pre-conference GP forum which was aimed at bringing GPs together to share strategies and local solutions for treating people living with hepatitis C. The speakers ranged from infectious disease specialists as well as GPs with varying levels of experience in the management of hepatitis C across different practice settings. There was also a presentation from a patient with a “lived” hepatitis C experience.

A report back om Dr Nicola Allard's session: Preventing HCC in primary care settings

This session delved into the factors affecting liver cancer prevention in primary care. Some major differences include the diversity of settings within primary care, diverse people and structures, and a low frequency of cancer diagnosis. There are other challenges too such as time limitations, with the average length of a GP consult being 14 minutes and the median at 12 minutes (which is surprisingly more than the 6 minute medicine we were led to believe!) But more people are seeing the GP compared to 10 years ago, with 85% of Australians seeing a GP at least once in the previous year, which represents an important opportunity for engagement in preventive health activities.

This session was presented within the workshop Equity and Access: unlocking the keys to viral hepatitis elimination. Kelly, Linda and Sarah presented data and innovations from the Hep B PAST project which has been working to determine the Hepatitis B Serostatus of all Aboriginal people within the NT and to improve the care available to those with Hepatitis B. This project had been developed in response to the high rate of Hepatitis B in the Aboriginal population of the NT, which has a prevalence of 15% in the pre-vaccination cohort in some remote communities.