Hepatitis Australia has been a key partner in the National Hepatitis C Finding 50,000 Project – an innovative national partnership project to scale up testing and treatment to engage people living with hepatitis C across the country to achieve the national 2022 hepatitis C testing and treatment targets.

This national project mobilised a shared commitment to ensuring all Australians had the opportunity to live free from hepatitis C. A key focus of the initiative was to find people not yet reached by the national response who were geographically, socially and demographically diverse and dispersed.

The Project was comprised of five pillar areas where focused activity was needed to achieve treatment targets. Premised on geographic and health equity, the five project pillars were:

Project Pillar	Implementing Partners
National hepatitis C public education campaigns	Hepatitis Australia The Burnet Institute in partnership with NACCHO and AIVL
National program to scale up hepatitis C point of care testing	The Kirby Institute in partnership with Flinders University and National Reference Laboratory
Expanded hepatitis activity in primary care including case finding	Australasian Society for HIV, Viral Hepatitis and Sexual Health Medicine (ASHM)
National Hepatitis Infoline enhancement	Hepatitis Australia
Hepatitis C systems working group and project coordination and evaluation	Australian Department of Health & BBVSTI Standing Committee

 

The pillars were inter-related and mutually reinforcing. By implementing all activities concurrently, there was scope to amplify their reach, reinforce messages, and increase engagements and outcomes. For example, in a single region an individual could be in engaged by a campaign activity designed to raise their awareness of hepatitis C and availability of cure, motivating their subsequent link to one or more of the other project pillars, including, a point of care test, support from the National Hepatitis Infoline or a GP who has undergone hepatitis C practice enhancement. The activities leveraged and scaled up the existing service system, and local capabilities to enable engagement that was above and beyond ‘business-as-usual’.

The Project was funded by the Australian Government Department of Health, with significant in-kind contributions and over 200 partners. 

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Page updated 12 February 2024