Health Sciences

Hepatitis C in Indigenous Community in Victoria.
Principal Investigators: Dr. Stephen McNally, Dr. Meredith Temple-Smith, Mark Saunders, Jill Gallagher, Dr Jacqui Richmond, Dr Priscilla Pyett, Peter Waples-Crowe, Robyne Latham

Research Project.

Recognising and responding to hepatitis C in Indigenous Communities in Victoria. This research project will be conducted by ARCSHS in collaboration with VACCHO.

This project is a study on identifying the barriers to hepatitis C anti-viral treatment for Indigenous communities in Victoria. The treatment of hepatitis C has changed significantly in recent years, with a significant increase in cure rates. It is unclear whether Indigenous people with hepatitis C are aware of these changes, and what barriers restrict accessing health care and treatment.
This research project will also establish hepatitis C treatment models, appropriate to Indigenous Communities. The study will offer ways of understanding barriers to treatment (within Victorian Indigenous communities), and how these might be reduced. Those interviewed will include: Indigenous people with hepatitis C, Aboriginal Health workers, GPs, Drug and Alcohol Workers, Indigenous Access Workers and Koori Hospital Liaison Officers.

Funding:
This research is funded by the Department of Human Services; Victorian Government.

Status:
To be completed September 2007.

Creating safe environments: supporting hepatitis C prevention
Marian Pitts, Meredith Temple-Smith, Anthony Smith, Genevieve Howse, Stephen McNally, Mark Saunders and Ian Malkin

Governments at all levels have implemented a range of legislation, regulations, codes of practices and legal agreements designed to limit the transmission of hepatitis C. This study is compiling a national audit of laws and regulations; identifying best practice in hepatitis C regulation; identifying any gaps and contradictions in regulations, and documenting how regulations and interpreted and implemented by service providers in needle and syringe programmes, correctional settings and body piercing and tattooing services.

Funding: Australian Health Ministers Advisory Committee

Status: to be completed by 2009; national audit completed, with work currently underway on the identification of best practice and of gaps and contradictions in regulations.

Improving Access to Hepatitis C Treatment Services for Disadvantaged Groups: Lessons from a Ethno-Specific Community Liver Clinic

Summary:
This project is a study on barriers to accessing hepatitis C anti-viral treatment for South-East Asian communities in Victoria.

The treatment of hepatitis C has changed significantly in recent years, with a significant increase in cure rates. Access to treatment has also become easier. It is unclear whether Vietnamese and Cambodian people with hepatitis C are aware of these changes, and what barriers they experience that stops them from accessing care and treatment.

The research will provide the basis for better treatment programs for people with hepatitis C from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. The study will offer ways of understanding further barriers to treatment (specific to CALD communities), and how these barriers might be reduced.

Health care and allied care providers working with people with hepatitis C (GPs, nurses, interpreters), community workers and people with hepatitis C will be interviewed.

This project is funded by the Department of Human Services, Victorian Government.

Safety First: Issues affecting the uptake of the Health Guidelines for Personal Care and Body Art Industries.

Principal investigators: Meredith Temple-Smith. Stephen McNally. Marian Pitts. Penny Weller (University of Victoria)
Penny Johnson (researcher)

This project will assess the methods used by local councils in the distribution and regulation of the Health Guidelines for Personal Care and Body Art Industries, and in the uptake of these guidelines by industry practitioners in Victoria. The guidelines were produced in 2004 to assist those involved in the personal care and body art industries to comply with the Health (Infectious Diseases) Regulations (2001). The guidelines provide information on how both operators and clients can be protected from blood borne viruses (BBVs) which can be associated with the procedures used in industries providing beauty therapy (eg. manicure, pedicure, hair removal), body art (eg. tattooing, piercing), hairdressing, colonic irrigation and physical therapies (eg. massage, flotation tanks, pools).

This project is funded by the Department of Human Service

Status: Expected to be completed towards end 2007

Australian National Hepatitis B Needs Assessment

Jack Wallace, Dr Stephen McNally and Dr Meredith Temple-Smith.

An estimated 90,000 to 160,000 people in Australia have chronic hepatitis B. Deaths among people with chronic hepatitis B and the number of cases of hepatitis B–related liver cancer are rising despite improvements in antiviral therapy although only a small proportion of people with chronic hepatitis B receive treatment. Unlike the Australian national public health response to reducing the impact of human immunodeficiency virus infection (HIV) transmission and hepatitis C there has been no nationally coordinated public health response to hepatitis B. A significant gap in the advocacy arsenal is a document detailing the specific needs of service providers, and people with chronic hepatitis B. The aim of the needs assessment will be to identify key stakeholders responding to hepatitis B in each Australian jurisdiction; identify needs and gaps in service provision for people with chronic hepatitis B; identify informational/educational programs and policies targeting service providers and people with chronic hepatitis B, and identify priorities for a nationally coordinated response to hepatitis B.

Funding: Bristol, Myers Squibb through Advancing the Clinical Treatment of Hepatitis B Virus (ACT-HBV), Australia and New Zealand Local Chapter

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Psychological and social factors associated with uptake and maintenance of clinical treatment for hepatitis C (Now later or never: challenges of hepatitis C treatment)
Marian Pitts, Mary O’Brien, Stephen McNally
Collaborators: Meredith Temple-Smith (Deakin University) William Sievert (Monash Medical Centre) and Helen McNeill (Hepatitis C Council of Victoria)

Very little research has been done into the broader social context of clinical treatment for hepatitis C. Less than 5% of people infected access clinical treatment and even fewer complete treatment. This Victorian based study investigates psychological and social factors that impact on the uptake of clinical treatment and impede or assist treatment adherence for people diagnosed with hepatitis C. The study involves a survey of people with hepatitis C, general practitioners and specialist physicians.

Funding : Department of Human Services and Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing
Status: In progress

Identifying the social, personal and health needs of men living with Hepatitis C
Mary O’Brien, Anthony Smith
Collaborator: Sandy Gifford (Deakin University)

The overall aim of this study is to collect baseline data on the specific social and health concerns of men infected with HCV with a specific focus on current and past IDUs and to identify gender specific needs for medical and social support services.

Funding: NHMRC Project Grant to Deakin University
Status: Complete

Blood, football and risk: an examination of the implementation and significance of blood borne virus prevention policy in Australian Rules Football
Mary O'Brien, Eli Wellings

A number of high profile cases of athletes with HIV have resulted in the treatment of blood spills in sports becoming a significant issue. This project examines the introduction of blood borne virus policy in Australian Rules Football, through media reporting of blood-related incidents and in-depth interviews with a small number (n=30) of participants including administrators, health and ancillary staff who deal with blood and body fluids, and players.

Funding La Trobe University, Faculty of Health Sciences Research Grant
Status: Complete