EC Australia

Partnering to eliminate hepatitis C as a public health threat by 2030

EC Australia eliminating hepatitis C from Australia
“Working directly with affected communities is at the heart of EC Australia, as they intimately know the problems they face, and the best and most appropriate ways to address these problems."
Dr Alisa Pedrana, Eliminate Hepatitis C Australia Coordinator

Foreword

EC Australia brings together researchers, public health specialists, community organisations, government and health services to work in partnership to focus on eliminating hepatitis C as a public health threat in Australia by 2030. The work of EC Australia has five principal components:

> Health Promotion
> Workforce Development and Health Service Delivery
> Implementation research
> Evaluation and Surveillance
> Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Strategy

We value the dedication and passion of community leaders and elders, peers, healthcare workers, and researchers in the EC Australia partnership.

Our collective efforts strengthen our work and progress towards hepatitis C elimination.

We pride ourselves on bringing together innovative ideas and evidence-based approaches to help solve the hepatitis C challenge. Led by Burnet Institute, a global leader in hepatitis C research and implementation science focusing on hepatitis C elimination, EC Australia takes a strategic, cohesive and multipronged approach to increase hepatitis C testing and treatment to achieve elimination.

Direct-acting antivirals have revolutionised hepatitis C care. Since becoming available through Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme in 2016, nearly 90,000 Australians have been treated for their hepatitis C infection. This is a remarkable effort, but it is vital that our work continues to ensure the estimated 120,000 Australians still infected with hepatitis C are tested, treated, and cured.

We are deeply grateful to the Paul Ramsay Foundation for their support of EC Australia, the Burnet Institute and all EC Australia partners for driving the elimination efforts through evidence and partnership.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has posed unique challenges, I am confident that the resilience and adaptability of our partners has kept us moving forward. I thank our partners and look forward to the next stages of our elimination efforts.

Professor Margaret Hellard AM
Deputy Director, Burnet Institute

Purpose and Goals

The Eliminate hepatitis C Australia Partnership (EC Australia) is a four-year partnership project formed in 2018 to bring together researchers, implementation scientists, government, health services and community organisations to ensure the whole of Australia sustains high numbers of people accessing hepatitis C treatment to meet our elimination goals.

Hepatitis C in Australia

> In 2020, 423 Australians died from hepatitis C-related causes.
> Nearly 90,000 Australians have been treated with effective, well-tolerated direct-acting antivirals.
> The challenge is finding, testing and linking to care the 120,000 Australians who are living with chronic hepatitis C infection.

Infographic: The Challenge-Finding nearly 120,000 Australians still living with chronic hepatitis C

Our Team

Professor Margaret Hellard AM

Deputy Director (Programs)
Adjunct Professor, Monash University, DEPM
Primary Investigator and
Technical Lead for
Implementation Research

Professor Mark A Stoové

Head of Public Health
Technical Lead for Evaluation
and Surveillance

A/Professor Joseph Doyle

Deputy Program Director,
Disease Elimination
Co-Head, Viral Hepatitis Elimination
Tecnhical Lead for Workforce Development and Health Service Delivery

Doctor Alisa Pedrana

Senior Research Fellow
Eliminate Hepatitis C Australia Coordinator

Doctor Jacqui Richmond

Program Manager,
Workforce Development and Health Service Delivery

Ms Emily Adamson

Program Manager,
Health Promotion

Doctor Anna Wilkinson

Research Fellow
Evaluation and Surveillance

Ms Freya Saich

Lead Policy Officer
Implementation Research

Mr Troy Combo

Program Manager,
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Strategy

Doctor Tafireyi Marukutira

PhD Student and Research Assistant,
Implementation Research

Doctor Nick Scott

Head, Modelling and Biostatistics Group
Evaluation and Surveillance

Doctor Jess Howell

Senior Research Fellow
Evaluation and Surveillance

Doctor Emma Beavon

Public Health Registrar

Dr Louisa Walsh

Evaluation Officer

Miss Stephanie Franet

EC Australia Project Manager

Ms Shannon Christensen

EC Australia Project Officer

Paul Armstrong

Co-lead Policy and Advocacy, Eliminate Hepatitis C Australia

Nicole Matthews

Research Coordinator, Connect C

Gabrielle Lindeman

Research Coordinator, Connect C

EC Australia Components

EC Australia aims to achieve its goals through five components that work in synergy across the entire program.

> Health Promotion
> Workforce Development and Health Service Delivery
> Implementation Research
> Evaluation and Surveillance
> Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Strategy

EC Australia components
Campaign poster - It's Your Right, Live Free of Hep C

Health Promotion

A National Reference Group (NRG) has co-designed a national health promotion campaign to increase awareness about hepatitis C treatments among people who inject drugs.

The campaign highlights the benefits of treatment, its availability to all, and ways to access. It addresses ongoing stigma relating to injecting drug use. Key messages are adapted for various settings and jurisdictions and are disseminated through peer-led models.

The NRG includes representation from partnership organisations: Australian Injecting and Illicit Drug Users League (AIVL), Harm Reduction Victoria, Hepatitis NSW, NSW Users and AIDS Association (NUAA), Peer Based Harm Reduction WA, La Trobe University, Burnet Institute and members from the AIVL National Peer Network.

View the campaign.

Program Manager: Emily Adamson

Workforce Development and Health Services Delivery

This component focuses on reducing structural barriers to accessing hepatitis C testing and treatments. It aims to improve the delivery of health services and the streamlining of the hepatitis C care pathway.

Interventions include:

> A national hepatitis C toolkit to assist primary care services to scale up testing and treatment in a long-term sustainable manner
> Innovative educational and quality improvement programs to support the training and mentoring of hepatitis C service delivery across multidisciplinary teams
> The work also involves a strong focus on monitoring and evaluation programs and the sharing of innovative practices and approaches to elimination.

Program Manager: Dr Jacqui Richmond

Workforce development
Infographic

Implementation Research

This component seeks to understand how best to increase engagement of key risk populations in hepatitis C care and maintain people throughout the care cascade. Research will explore the impact of key interventions:

> Strategies to increase awareness and engagement in care
> The use of hepatitis C notification data to identify and follow-up people diagnosed with hepatitis C and link them into treatment
> Integration of rapid point-of-care testing into the hepatitis C care pathway to increase and maintain patients in the care cascade, including a trial of same-day diagnosis and treatment models to reduce loss to follow-up care.

Contact ecaustralia@burnet.edu.au for more information.

Evaluation and Surveillance

The Burnet and Kirby Institutes publish an annual report on the progress towards hepatitis C elimination in Australia. EC Australia supports the expansion of established surveillance systems and the development of new ones including:

> Australian Collaborations for Enhanced Sentinel Surveillance of Blood Borne Viruses and Sexually Transmissible Infections (ACCESS) to monitor hepatitis C incidence, prevalence, and the care cascade
> A sustainable light-touch e-system to identify cases of hepatitis C related cirrhosis and link them into a liver cancer surveillance program
> An optimisation model to guide scale-up of hepatitis C elimination efforts and future funding priorities, based on cost-effectiveness data.

Contact ecaustralia@burnet.edu.au for more information.

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EC logo

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Strategy   

This strategy cuts across the other four key components of EC Australia and will support a holistic, comprehensive and culturally safe approach to hepatitis C care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This component will aim to strengthen partnerships with the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOS), and peer-drug user and the viral hepatitis sectors.

> Health promotion campaign to increase awareness of hepatitis C treatments among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
> Supporting ACCHOs and mainstream health services to deliver culturally safe hepatitis C care
> Provide a clearer understanding of progress towards hepatitis C elimination among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Program Manager: Mr Troy Combo

Resources

Social Impact Analysis

> Preparing for the future funding of Eliminate Hepatitis C Australia: Phase 1: Laying the Foundations: Executive Summary

EC Australia Authorship Guidelines

> EC Australia Authorship Guidelines
> Appendix 1 - Manuscript Concept Sheet Template
> Appendix 2 - Membership List

EC Australia Showcase: 9–10 November 2022

> Event Agenda
> Session recordings: Day 1, Day 2
> Event slide decks: Day 1, Day 2
> Event pictures

Workforce Development Infographics

> Download infographics for projects in your state or territory

Reports and Publications

EC Australia Reports

> EC Australia Annual Report - 2022
> EC Australia Annual Report - 2021
> EC Australia Annual Report - 2020
> HCV Notification Data Report - 2020
> EC Australia Annual Report - 2019

Australia’s Progress Towards Hepatitis C Elimination – Annual Reports

2023 report coming soon! Register for the launch
> Australia's Progress Towards Hepatitis C Elimination - 2022
> Australia's Progress Towards Hepatitis C Elimination - 2021
> Australia's Progress Towards Hepatitis C Elimination - 2020
> Australia's Progress Towards Hepatitis C Elimination - 2019

Capacity Building Workshops

Four capacity building workshops have been delivered to members of the Eliminate hepatitis C Australia (ECA) partnership. The topics and length of these workshops were developed through consultation with project partners participating in ECA.

> Workshop 1 – How to write a survey for public health
> Workshop 2 – Introduction to REDCap
> Workshop 3 – How to visually present data 
> Workshop 4 – Hepatitis C Surveillance 101

Videos

Recordings and Webinars

ASHM and EC Australia: eliminating hepatitis C during COVID-19
Melinda Hassall from ASHM discusses her organisation's success in moving face-to-face BBV and STI training online during COVID-19 restrictions.

QuIHN and EC Australia: Eliminating hepatitis C during COVID-19
Esha Leyden, Peer Harm Reduction Worker at QuIHN shares how she has consulted with hepatitis C patients over the phone during COVID-19 restrictions, and how she ensures they get onto treatment.

TasCAHRD and EC Australia: Eliminating hepatitis C during COVID-19
Robert Johnston from the Tasmanian Council on AIDS, Hepatitis & Related Diseases discusses how his organisation has pivoted to deliver hepatitis C education via Zoom, and the success of this initiative.

Tasmanian Statewide Sexual Health Service and EC Australia: Eliminating hepatitis C during COVID-19
Megan Hughes and Karen Moore from the Tasmanian Sexual Health Outreach Service discuss the success of running hepatitis C testing days at a local needle and syringe program in the greater Hobart region, where many patients feared the stigma of visiting a general practitioner or don't tend to engage with GPs.

View our EC YouTube channel for the latest webinars and recordings.




Our Partners

Kirby Institute

Doherty Institute

Menzies School of Health Research

South Australia Health and Medical Research Institute

Australasian Society for HIV Medicine

Australian Hepatology Association

Australian Medical Association

Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association

Gastroenterological Society of Australia

Royal Australian College of General Practitioners

Pharmaceutical Society of Australia

Hepatitis Australia

Hepatitis ACT

Hepatitis NSW

Hepatitis QLD

Hepatitis SA

Hepatitis VIC

Hepatitis WA

Northern Territory AIDS and Hepatitis Council

Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations

Australian Injecting and Illicit Drug Users League

Canberra Alliance of Harm Minimisation and Advocacy

Harm Reduction Victoria

NSW Users and AIDS Association

Peer-Based Harm Reduction WA

Queensland Injectors for Advocacy and Action

Sexual Health and Blood Borne Viruses Evaluation Network (SIREN)

Tasmanian Users Health and Support League

Western Australian Network of Alcohol and Other Drug Agencies

Barwon Health

Cairns Sexual Health Service

Danila Dilba Health Service

Health Central Adelaide

Kirketon Road Centre

TasCAHRD

Tasmania Statewide Sexual Health Service

You Yangs Medical Clinic

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Health Service

Aboriginal Health Council of Western Australia

Aboriginal Health Services TAS

Aboriginal Victoria

Institute for Urban Indigenous Health

Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation

La Trobe University

Monash University

University of Melbourne

University of NSW

University of Queensland

University of Sydney

ACT Health

Department of Health TAS

Department of Health QLD

Department of Health NSW

Department of Health NT

Department of Health and Human Services VIC

SA Health

Department of Health WA

Alfred Health

Alfred Hospital

Liverpool Hospital

Princess Margaret Hospital

Royal Adelaide Hospital

Royal Melbourne Hospital

Royal Perth Hospital

Royal Prince Alfred Hospital

St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne

Centre for Social Research in Health

Social Policy Research Centre

Country SA Primary Health Network

East Melbourne Primary Health Care Collaborative

Hunter New England Local Health District

VHITTAL Committee of the North West Melbourne PHN

WA Primary Health Alliance

Telethon Kids

Youth Link

Contact

Dr Alisa Pedrana
alisa.pedrana@burnet.edu.au
Senior Research Fellow, Eliminate Hepatitis C Australia Coordinator

EC Austalia
ecaustralia@burnet.edu.au

Acknowledgment of Country

We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which Burnet is located, the Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nations, and recognise their ongoing connection to land, waters and community.

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