"Attitude to IV Drug Users Fuels Hepatitis C Spread"

Rouse, Rada
Australia's "don't care" attitude toward injection drug
users has helped to fuel the spread of hepatitis C, claims Chris
Puplick, chair of the Australian National Council on AIDS and
Related Diseases (ANCARD). More than 150,000 Australians are
infected with the hepatitis C virus, and 6,000 new
infectionsmost of them among injecting drug usersare reported
each year. "Like many other infectious diseases which are easily
prevented, a greater degree of concern would have been applied to
[hepatitis C] if the principal group involved were not IV drug
usersa group of people who don't rank high on the concerns of
public policymakers," Puplick said. The government adviser has
launched a National Health and Medical Research Council report
that advises lifting restrictions on the drug interferon.
Prisoners, Puplick says, are especially at risk, because the loss
of their Medicare number essentially prevents them from getting
interferon therapy and "prison authorities are reluctant to
provide [the drug] because it becomes a cost on state health
authorities." Currently, drug users, heavy drinkers,
HIVinfected individuals, and those with cirrhosis of the liver
are prevented from receiving the drug, but the report notes that
these people should be eligible after review by their physician.