Prevention - Hepatitis Australia

Prevention

Prevention is a cornerstone of Australia’s response to viral hepatitis. It is a proactive approach that enables people to safeguard their health, minimise transmission and avert the health and economic costs of infection.

Hepatitis Australia’s contribution

Support and promote the work of members, e.g. through HepLink, the national front door to community hepatitis care and support

Find solutions and advocate for change, e.g. gaps in access to sterile injecting equipment

Promote service innovation, e.g. opt-out hepatitis C testing on prison entry and exit

Provide authoritative information, e.g. through Hepatitis Australia’s website

Implementation plan

Priority	How we will achieve it	When we will do it
HepLink	Successfully deliver HepLink with members as Australia’s flagship hepatitis B and hepatitis C information, support and navigation program.
	Continue to invest in the shared governance of HepLink as a partnership of Hepatitis Australia, its state and territory members and stakeholders.
	Continuously strengthen HepLink planning and operational fidelity, informed by priorities members identify to improve hepatitis B and hepatitis C outcomes.
	Grow HepLink as a network of organisations and services linked under a national service guarantee, ensuring information, support and navigation is consistent and seamless across the sector.
	Continuously monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of HepLink, adjusting the program as needed to strengthen reach and impact.
	Profile the efficiencies and impact of HepLink as a model of best practice in nationally coordinating the local implementation of Commonwealth-funded initiatives.
Prisons and other places of held detention	Lead dialogue to identify pathways to the provision of sterile injecting equipment in prisons and other places of held detention.
	Advocate with members for opt-out testing with informed consent immediately upon entry to remand centres, prison and other places of held detention to support treatment initiation.
	Advocate for immediate treatment initiation upon diagnosis in prisons and other places of held detention to reduce the period of possible transmission in an environment without access to prevention.
	Advocate for immediate access to opioid agonist therapy options on entry to prisons and other places of held detention for those who can benefit.
	Advocate for opt-out testing with informed consent on exit from prisons and other places of held detention to better quantify the extent to which policy failure in these settings is undermining elimination.
Sterile injecting equipment	Support the leadership of AIVL and contribute to wider coalitions to promote the decriminalisation of personal drug use and the diversion of people who use drugs from the justice system.
	Identify the pathways and lead efforts to remove restrictions on the retail sale of sterile injecting equipment.
	Identify legislative and other barriers to the distribution of sterile injecting equipment by peers and others including family members and delivery drivers and build coalitions to remove these barriers.
	Advocate for the continual strengthening of NSPs, including through workforce training and by monitoring changes in coverage and the number and distribution of sites and advocating against unreasonable limits on the volume of equipment attendees can access, where those restrictions exist.
	Support the leadership of AIVL in promoting harm reduction among people who inject drugs, including based on knowledge of hepatitis C status.
	Engage with researchers to strengthen evidence that knowledge of hepatitis C status reduces needle sharing, including to highlight prosocial practices and inform education.

Vaccination	Support members to promote initiatives that make it easier for people to know their vaccination history, drawing on lessons from COVID-19.
	Identify with members and partners opportunities for members to contribute to antenatal screening, the care of mothers with hepatitis B and the prevention of mother-to-child transmission.
	Explore with members and national immunisation stakeholders including NACCHO the contribution community hepatitis organisations can make to infant hepatitis B vaccination, awareness and uptake.
	Advocate for the revision and implementation of the 2018 Hepatitis B: CDNA National Guidelines for Public Health Units[6] to enhance the follow-up of notifications of women of child-bearing age to identify and support the provision of care for pregnant women with hepatitis B.
	Determine with researchers and ASHM which adult populations should be eligible for free hepatitis B vaccination and advocate for the standardisation of free access across states and territories.
	Identify with members and other partners opportunities to promote hepatitis B vaccination to those recommended by the Australian Immunisation Handbook, but who are not eligible for free vaccine under the National Immunisation Program: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men migrants from hepatitis B-endemic countries sex workers travellers to hepatitis B-endemic areas at increased risk people with developmental disabilities people with hepatitis C and liver disease people who are immunocompromised, including with HIV people who inject drugs people who receive blood products people in prions and other places of held detention household and close contacts of people with hepatitis B sexual contacts of people with hepatitis B
	Identify with members and other partners opportunities to promote hepatitis A vaccination to others recommended by the Australian Immunisation Handbook, but who are not eligible for free vaccine under the National Immunisation Program, including: people with medical risk factors, including liver disease gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men people with developmental disabilities and their carers sex workers people over 12 months who travel to hepatitis A-endemic areas people who inject drugs people who have anal intercourse people in prison and other places of held detention
	Explore with members and through Blood-borne Viruses and Sexually Transmissible Infections Standing Committee (BBVSS) of the Australian Health Protection Committee (AHPC) the contribution members can make to hepatis B vaccination for household and sexual contacts by Public Health Units.

Education	Maintain authoritative and comprehensive content on viral hepatitis in a range of community languages on Hepatitis Australia’s website and social media channels.
	Champion researchers who are working toward a preventive vaccine for hepatitis C, recognising this as essential to achieve eradication.