There are some health checks most of us know to ask for. Blood pressure. Cholesterol. Iron. Vitamin D. The usual things that come up when we finally make time to see a GP and say, “Can we just check everything?”
But hepatitis B and hepatitis C are not always part of “everything”.
That is one of the messages Hepatitis ACT wants Canberrans to understand this World Hepatitis Day, marked in Australia on 28 July.
This year’s national theme is “Take the Next Step”, encouraging people to take one practical step for their health, whether that is getting tested, getting vaccinated for hepatitis B, starting hepatitis C treatment, or simply asking what comes next.
For many of us, the first step might be realising we do not know what we think we know.
Hepatitis ACT has a similar beginning to many of the non-profit organisations in Canberra. Incorporated in 1996, after being started by people living with hepatitis C who had no support. What began as a small working group became the ACT Hepatitis Resource Centre, then Hepatitis ACT in 2013. The reason the organisation exists is simple: to make sure people in the ACT and surrounds know how to look after their liver, and know hepatitis B and C are still viruses of concern.
The biggest tragedy is that not a lot of people still know that this is out there and this exists, and that leads to people developing liver cancer and liver cirrhosis.” The team told us.
That is the quiet danger of hepatitis B and C. You can live with either for years without obvious symptoms. You may feel well. You may have no reason to think your liver is under stress. You may have had routine bloods before and assumed anything important would have shown up.
But the gap is clear: You have to specifically ask for the test.
That is a sentence worth sitting with.
Because for many people, the barrier is not fear. It is not even time. It is simply not knowing that hepatitis testing is something you may need to request.
And yes, the stigma is still there.
When Hepatitis ACT’s education team goes into the community and offers testing, they often hear the same response:
Oh, I don’t use, I don’t need a test.”
But as one team member explained, “That’s not it.” Hepatitis is not only about injecting drug use. It is a blood-borne virus, which means there are other blood-to-blood transmission risks too.
Those can include tattoos, particularly unregulated or backyard tattoos, tattoos done overseas where sterilisation standards may vary, blood transfusions in Australia prior to 1990, medical or dental procedures overseas in settings with lower infection control standards, contact sports or fighting where blood exposure occurs, and sharing personal care items such as razors, clippers, nail clippers or toothbrushes.
This is where awareness matters.
Because if the only picture in your mind is a stereotype, you may not see yourself in the risk. You may not ask the question. You may not get the test.
And the test itself may be easier than you think.
Hepatitis ACT provides free rapid testing from its office in Turner, and testing is also available through a doctor or nurse practitioner. Canberrans are encouraged to focus on liver health through three steps: prevent, test and treat. It also notes that early testing allows timely treatment, reduces the risk of liver damage or cancer, and helps prevent hepatitis spreading in the community.
At Hepatitis ACT, the team described two different hepatitis C testing pathways. One is an antibody test, which checks whether someone has ever been exposed to hepatitis C. The other is an RNA point-of-care test, which can show whether there is a current infection. The national point-of-care testing program, run through the Kirby Institute at UNSW, gives sites access to finger-stick hepatitis C antibody and RNA tests.
In practical terms, that means a small finger prick, a short wait, and far fewer appointments.
Through traditional pathology, results can take days, and the pathway from first test to treatment may involve multiple appointments. For many people, especially those managing housing insecurity, unstable income, limited transport, poor phone access or other pressures, that is too many points where care can fall away.
At Hepatitis ACT, the model is designed to reduce those barriers. Their testing machine can travel. The team goes to outreach sites, including pharmacies and community settings, because not everyone will walk into the main office.
That sounds simple. It is also deeply important.
Good health care is not only about having the right treatment. It is about making the door easier to find, easier to walk through, and easier to return to.
Hepatitis C treatment has changed dramatically. The harsh older treatment many people remember is no longer the story. Today, hepatitis C can usually be treated with direct-acting antiviral tablets. Australian clinical guidance says almost all patients can be successfully cured with direct-acting antiviral therapy, and current treatment is usually an eight or twelve-week course of tablets with cure rates over 95 per cent.
At Hepatitis ACT, that shift is more than a medical fact. It is something the team sees in real people.
They spoke about clients who had lived with hepatitis C for years, sometimes knowing their status but not knowing where to start. Some had watched friends or family suffer through older treatments and could not quite believe the new tablets could be so different. Others needed support with medication storage, transport, pathology, appointments, or simply having someone keep checking in.
That is where the peer workers matter.
The front-of-house and peer workforce at Hepatitis ACT is not just administrative. It is relational. People come in for sterile injecting equipment, naloxone, sharps disposal, food through the OzHarvest partnership, or simply a familiar face. Over time, trust builds. Someone remembers their dog’s name. Someone asks how school went. Someone says, gently, “When was the last time you got checked?”
This is not a cold clinical pathway. It is a long game of trust.
The same is true for hepatitis B, although the picture is different. Hepatitis B can be prevented through vaccination, and in Australia the hepatitis B vaccine is recommended for infants at birth, then at 2, 4 and 6 months. Hepatitis B can also be managed with regular monitoring and treatment when needed, which is why knowing your status matters.
Hepatitis B is particularly important in multicultural communities, and for people born in countries where hepatitis B is more common. It can also be passed from mother to baby, which is why pregnancy screening is so important. The message here is not blame. It is care.
Hepatitis should be treated like any other health condition. Just like how we talk about diabetes or heart health issues, it’s just a condition. It shouldn’t be related to any person’s lifestyle habits or anything.”
That may be the most important thing to take into 28 July.
This is not about deciding who “needs” a test based on judgement. It is not about shame. It is not about assuming you would know if something was wrong.
It is about knowing your status.
It is about asking your GP or nurse practitioner, “Can you add hepatitis B and hepatitis C testing to my bloods?”
It is about checking your vaccination status for hepatitis B.
It is about knowing that hepatitis C is curable.
It is about knowing that hepatitis B is manageable and preventable.
It is about knowing there is a local team in Canberra that will meet people where they are, without judgement, and help them take the next step.
Because maybe you did not know.
But now you do. And that could be enough to ask the question.
Hepatitis ACT regularly offer outreach across Canberra. Outreach Services take free hepatitis C testing, point-of-care testing (POCT), and accurate health education directly into the community, meeting people where they are. You can check the schedule on their website for when they will be near you next here, under Programs/ Outreach Services.
