Exploring the low rate of HCV infection in newborns
Unlike other blood-borne viruses such as HIV and hepatitis B, the risk of a baby being infected with hepatitis C during the mother’s pregnancy or during birth is very low. Only about 5% of babies born to mothers who have hepatitis C are themselves infected by the disease.
Continue reading “Newborn Resistance”
Virologist Connor Bamford and Professor John McLauchlan, both of the University of Glasgow, explain to the Hepatitis SA Community News how their research shows that not all people are equally vulnerable to hepatitis C.
The hepatitis C virus (HCV) infects around 1per cent of the human population and is a devastating pathogen. In most people, it silently infects the liver for decades, and can cause life-threatening inflammation, scarring and even cancer. How the virus achieves this feat has long puzzled scientists.
Continue reading “Why are a small group of people born immune to hepatitis C?”
While only 2.3% of South Australia’s population is Indigenous, almost a quarter (22%) of people in the State’s prison system are Aboriginal. The prison population is also rife with blood-borne viruses, including hepatitis B and C—viruses which also disproportionately affect Indigenous people in the general population.
Untreated chronic health conditions (as well as hepatitis these commonly include mental illness, diabetes, heart and respiratory diseases, cancer and drug use), compounded by a prisoner’s isolation from their family and community, and a fracturing in their cultural identity and spiritual wellbeing, can be catastrophic for an Aboriginal person in the prison system.
Continue reading “The Challenges of Aboriginal Prisoner Care in South Australia”
In this information age it is ironic that credible, reliable information can sometimes be hard to find in the tsunami of results from online searches.
Separating the reliable, evidence-based information from the “alternative” facts can be challenging.
The good news is, if you’re looking for hepatitis-related information in Australia, there’s just one place online you need to visit.
Continue reading “Stigma, Treatment, Policy – Pick your topic at Hep SA’s library”