World Hepatitis Day

discussion of recent social research on people’s lived experience of hepatitis C, treatment and life after cure in Australia to mark World Hepatitis Day in 2022.

Each year on July 28, people around the world come together to mark World Hepatitis Day. One of the World Health Organization’s nine officially mandated public health days, its aim is to raise awareness of the global burden of viral hepatitis and to galvanise the attention and resources to address it. To mark World Hepatitis Day in 2022, researchers in the GLaD and DruGS programs at ARCSHS got together with Chief Executive Officer of Hepatitis Australia Carrie Fowlie to discuss findings from three recent social research projects on hepatitis C. Adrian Farrugia shared findings from a recent project on people’s lived experiences of treatment for hepatitis C in Australia. Renae Fomiatti shared highlights from a project on how telehealth has been used in hepatitis C care, particularly during COVID-19. And GLaD researchers Emily Lenton and Sean Mulcahy shared findings from a project exploring the post-cure experiences of people treated for hepatitis C. Carrie Fowlie rounded out the conversation with reflections on how these findings relate to current conversations in the community-based response to hepatitis C, the emphasis in those conversations on whole-of-person responses, and the critical insights from these projects for the forthcoming national hepatitis C strategies. The discussion was hosted by GLaD Research Lead Kate Seear, and chaired by GLaD researcher Dion Kagan. We are grateful to all of the contributors. Read more about the podcast here, or click to listen below.