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Health.Reps@Aph.Gov.Au Committee Secretary Standing Committee on Health PO Box 6021 Parliament House CANBERRA ACT 2600 Via email: [email protected] To Whom It May Concern: INQUIRY INTO HEPATITIS C IN AUSTRALIA I thank the standing committee for providing the opportunity for me to respond to the Inquiry into Hepatitis C (HCV) in Australia. As the member for Northern Metropolitan Region of Victoria, HCV affects a number of my constituents. Furthermore, the state peak body responsible for hepatitis, Hepatitis Victoria, is located in Brunswick, which is part of my region. I support the great work undertaken by Hepatitis Victoria and I trust they will provide a compelling submission to this inquiry. I commend also the work of Harm Reduction Victoria, located in North Melbourne, for their excellent work with respect to policy and implementation of needle and syringe programs. HCV Prevalence Data shows that total HCV notifications in Victoria for the period 2010-2013 were 9,166, a rate of 42.8 per 100,000 people. When looking at data for the 2007-2011 period, by local government area (LGA), the two highest LGAs were Melbourne, with three times higher notifications and Yarra with more than two times higher than the state average (126.7 and 98.8 per 100,000 respectively) both within the Northern Metropolitan Region. It is worth noting that the higher notification rate in Melbourne LGA could partly be attributed to the location of the Melbourne Sexual Health Clinic where a number of HIV positive co- infected patients access health services and treatment. Whilst similarly there are a number of community health services situated in the City of Yarra, it is not surprising that there is discussion about establishing a safe injecting facility in this LGA, where prevalence of injecting drug use is particular high. The prevalence of HCV is geographically clustered making it amenable to localised and targeted strategies. Testing and Treatment Options Access to testing and treatment is fundamental to the reduction of prevalence of this blood borne virus. Living in a regional or remote location should not be a barrier to access of health services and should be taken into consideration when determining policy on who can prescribe treatment for HCV. That is, a person wanting to undertake treatment in a regional or remote area should not have to travel to a metropolitan region to access the services of specialist doctors. I believe that local general practitioners should be able to work in collaboration with a specialist with the least amount of burden placed on the person wishing to access treatment. One of my constituents recently met with to me and discussed his experience of living with HCV and how he failed treatment in 2010 with the Pegylated Interferon. He described to me the adverse mental health and anxiety he suffered during the treatment making him unsuitable for retreatment on this drug. This constituent has asked me to include in my submission that for him and many others who either cannot tolerate Pegylated Interferon or have failed treatment on this drug need access to Sofosbuvir, which is currently not included in the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. I strongly believe that like the government and community response to HIV, treatment as prevention is a highly effective tool in managing the transmission of HCV. Government must ensure that treatment and preventative measures are available for those people who have a higher risk of transmission to non-infected persons, particular in prison populations and other injecting drug users. Treatment as prevention is not the only way to reduce transmission, but rather one part of a number of approaches in reducing prevalence. I have long supported publicly the importance of needle and syringe exchange programs (NSPs). Access to these important services should be increased – personally I would like to see these services open for longer so that people trying to access clean injecting equipment, people who are tying to do the right thing, are not turned away due to limited resources to staff NSPs. I also support the establishment of one or more safe, medically supervised injecting facilities in Victoria. I look forward to hearing the outcomes of this inquiry. Fiona Patten MLC Northern Metropolitan Region Parliament of Victoria .
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