Sydney’s Vietnamese community has welcomed the New Year Tet festival with red envelopes containing health messages on hepatitis B and small gifts from the South Western Sydney Local Health District at Fairfield Showground on 23-25 February.

Local Health District Health Education Officer, Uyen Truong, presented the lucky envelopes at the festival and spoke to the community about protecting their health by learning more about hepatitis B.

“Hepatitis B is common in many culturally diverse communities, including our own,” she said. “Most people with hepatitis B don’t have symptoms and many don’t know they have it. We hope to raise awareness and put hepatitis B on our community’s agenda."

MHAHS Cultural Support Officer, Kim Trang, was at the event with her colleague Ann Nguyen to answer possible questions about the epidemic from the public.

“This was a very positive experience. So many people stopped by to chat with us about hepatitis B. Some wanted more information about their ongoing hepatitis B treatment in their own language while others shared their stories about their treatment. Many liked getting their hands on the red envelope and taking their pictures at the photo booth which generated photos with hepatitis B messages on them,” said Ms Kim.

There are more than 239,000 people living with chronic hepatitis B in Australia with about 84,000 in NSW. Nearly 40 per cent of them don’t know they have the virus. Untreated, chronic hepatitis B can cause serious liver damage and liver cancer.

The Multicultural HIV and Hepatitis Service (MHAHS) helped run an information stall at Mardi Gras Fair Day on 18th February. Coordinated by the HARP Unit from Sydney Local Health District, the MHAHS team helped distribute various health resources  at the event.

Health Promotion Officer, Ally Kerr, who helped at the stall with our other Health Promotion Officer, Natali Smud, said the event was an ideal opportunity to collaborate with other services.

“It was great to meet with people from many other health services at the event. Events such as these not only increase our visibility, they also make health information more accessible to our communities,” she said.

Details about other community events are available here.

The HIV prevention drug, PrEP, looks set to be listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), drastically slashing its price and increasing its accessibility for tens of thousands of potential users.

According to reports the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee, which provides recommendations on what drugs should be listed and publicly subsidised, is set to advise the government to list Truvada, the commercial name for PrEP.

PrEP is a once-daily pill that is considered to be 99% effective at preventing new HIV diagnoses when used properly.

Truvada can currently cost up to $10,000 a year but a PBS listing is expected to bring the price to below $500 a year, meaning thousands of at-risk individuals, including men who have sex with men, injecting drug users and sex workers, will have greater access to the drug.

However whilst PrEP’s success and its listing on PBS are welcome news, much remains to be done to relise its full potential particularly among the culturally diverse communities, according to Barbara Luisi, manager of the Multicultural HIV and Hepatitis Service.

“People from diverse cultural backgrounds remain overrepresented in newly diagnosed HIV cases in Australia these past few years. For PrEP to be fully effective, we need to ensure there is increased awareness of HIV risk amongst our diverse communities, along with an understanding of the range of prevention options, including the benefits of testing and treatment. The PBS listing of PrEP is both a historic opportunity to reach out to such a population and to tackle an important global epidemic,” Ms Luisi said.

A MHAHS information stall at Embassy English College, Charles Sturt University on 16th January was a huge success.

The stall at the Well-Being Expo, staffed by our Health Promotion Officer, Natali Smud and Chinese Cultural Support Officer, Jim Tan, shared information about the service and distributed resources on HIV.

Ms Smud said that the event was a great place to meet international students and hear their views about the epidemic.

“Many students of diverse language backgrounds visited our stall and were keen to know if HIV services in Australia are free and confidential. We are encouraged that many students want to know more about HIV treatment and Dried Blood Spot HIV Home Testing. We were able to explain the students that they don’t have to have a medicare card to access HIV services.  We thank the college for inviting us and hope our information will help the students look after their health”.

The MHAHS International Student’s Project is aimed at raising awareness of contemporary HIV testing, treatment and prevention options among overseas students studying in NSW. It encourages international students to seek free help from relevant HIV services if they feel they are at risk while studying in NSW.

For more project details, contact Gula Sapthari on (9515 1234) or email Esta dirección de correo electrónico está siendo protegida contra los robots de spam. Necesita tener JavaScript habilitado para poder verlo..