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Hepatitis Victoria

  • Project: HEPReady
  • Amount: $164,957 over two years
  • Year(s) Funded: 2016

Debunking the myths while enabling best practice management and treatment of hepatitis, the ‘silent killer’

HEPReady aims to up-skill health and community professionals in Victoria with accurate and timely information on viral hepatitis, and, in the long-term, reduce the rates of infection and impact on lives.

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Hepatitis Victoria trainer Aurora Tang presents HEPReady training
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“HEPReady will educate the very many people who daily come into contact with those living with and at risk of viral hepatitis, so that they can better respond to and ultimately reduce risky behaviour and increase testing and treatment of these silent killer” Melanie Eagle, CEO, Hepatitis Victoria

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Almost 500,000 Australians live with chronic hepatitis B or C, known as the ‘silent killer’. While it is a condition 17 times more prevalent than HIV/AIDS, only 5% of people receive treatment or management for the virus. The delay in diagnosis and low treatment rates means 1,000 Australians die every year of viral hepatitis and over four Victorians die weekly. Viral hepatitis is also the leading cause of liver cancer, currently the fastest growing cause of cancer death in Australia.

  • Over five years, HEPReady will educate 10,000 workforce professionals who come into contact with those living with or at risk of viral hepatitis, potentially reaching the entire population of people living with viral hepatitis in Victoria.
  • HEPReady is a tailored training and accreditation package for Victorian health and community workers to enable them to appropriately identify and respond to individuals who are living with (or at the risk of) viral hepatitis leading to timely identification, testing and treatment.
  • The program aims to encourage a systematic change in the way the Victorian healthcare workforce diagnoses, works with and treats viral hepatitis.
  • Developed as a fee-for-service Workforce Development social enterprise project, the tailored course provides both face-to-face and online learning, including ‘lived experience’ of viral hepatitis.

hepvic.org.au