Associated with considerable mortality and morbidity, hepatitis C virus (HCV) affects around 70 million people worldwide causing chronic, progressive liver disease, cirrhosis and liver cancer. More than 500,000 people die from HCV-related liver diseases each year.

Many people infected with hepatitis C are unaware of their infection status leading to delayed diagnosis and people missing out on highly effective curative treatment. Currently there is no vaccine to prevent infection.

Babies born to HCV infected mothers are at risk of contracting the virus and it is also transmitted through the blood of an infected person.

Eliminating hepatitis in Australia

An estimated 180,000 Australians live with chronic hepatitis C resulting in more than 600 deaths from liver cancer and liver failure each year, making it one of Australia’s major public health issues. Highly effective curative treatments called direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) became available in Australia in March 2016.

Over 50,000 Australians are estimated to have been cured with these new treatments. However much work needs to be done if Australia is to stop new infections and deaths due to hepatitis C.

The World Health Organization set global targets to eliminate hepatitis C as a public health threat including an 80 per cent reduction of hepatitis C-reduction in new hepatitis C infections and a 65 per cent related deaths by 2030 compared with 2010.

Current Projects

• ACCESS: STI and BBV surveillance system
  ACCESS is a surveillance system that collates important information on a range of STIs and BBVs.
• ALT point-of-care diagnostic to detect liver disease
  Nanjing BioPoint is developing a new diagnostic for detecting liver disease.
• co-EC Study: Eliminating hepatitis C/HIV coinfection
  Eliminating hepatitis C transmission by enhancing care and treatment among HIV co-infected individuals.
• CREIDU: Centre for Research Excellence into Injecting Drug Use
  Improving the health of PWID through new research to inform public health policy and practice.
• CT2 Study: Community-based Testing and Treatment for Hepatitis C
  This hybrid trial is underway in Myanmar.
• DARE C: ATAHC II Substudy
  DARE-C aims to evaluate therapy duration using triple therapy (PEG-IFN/RBV/TPV).
• Decision science using Optima
  Research and applications across disease areas to improve allocative efficiency.
• EC Australia: The vital missing link to eliminating hepatitis C
  Australia’s first nationally coordinated response to hepatitis C aims to achieve elimination by 2030.
• EC Partnership: Eliminate Hepatitis C Partnership
  Informing the elimination of HCV through a community-based nurse-led model of care and treatment.
• HCV Elimination Modelling
  Providing evidence-based policy recommendations for prevention, testing and treatment of Hepatitis C.
• Hepatitis C and injecting networks
  Understanding the transmission of hepatitis C in a social network of young people who inject drugs.
• Hepatitis C brief reports
  Summaries of published hepatitis C research from Burnet Institute are now available to read and download.
• HepSeeVax: Proof-of-concept study of an HCV vaccine candidate
  No vaccine is available for hepatitis C virus infection and treatments are toxic and partly effective.
• Methods for improved sensitivity of lateral flow tests
  Integrating innovative techniques in nanotechnology to the development of robust and sensitive rapid assays.
• Natural history and response to treatment recent hepatitis C virus infection among a cluster of HCV genotype-1b infected individuals
  A cohort of women was exposed to hepatitis C virus (HCV) in a health care setting to a common source. The source was chronically infected with HCV genotype 1b.
• PATH Cohort Study
  A cohort study of the trajectories of prisoners with a history of injecting drug use after release from prison.
• Social Networks and the Hepatitis C Virus
  The Networks study aims to produce a better understanding of the structure and dynamics of IDU networks to see if they can be altered to reduce HCV entry and spread.
• SuperMIX: The Melbourne Injecting Drug User Cohort Study
  A five-year study of the dynamics of cessation of injecting drug use and any subsequent relapse.
• The Australian Trial in Acute Hepatitis C (ATAHC)
  An NIH-funded multicentre prospective cohort study conducted from 2004-2008 in Australia, featuring 167 subjects.
• The impact of viral infections on immune ageing.
  Characterising the impact of chronic and acute viral infections on immune ageing, immune dysfunction, and development of age-related diseases.
• Understanding how HCV evades the immune system
  This project aims to understand the quality of the immune response in those people who are protected from developing chronic HCV despite frequent exposure.

Past Projects

• Health needs of deported U.S. military veterans in Tijuana, Mexico
  Study using qualitative methods to examine their health status and health needs.
• A universal prophylactic vaccine against HCV
  Protection against seven circulating genotypes will be essential to the success of an HCV vaccine.
• ATAHC 2: Australian Trial in Acute Hepatitis C II
  The ATAHC 2 study will examine the effect of interferon with or without Ribavirin in recent HCV infection.
• B cell response to HCV infection
  This research will inform vaccine design to favour the elicitation of protective antibody specificities.
• Communicable disease screening and prevalence among migrants
  A study to improve communicable disease health outcomes among migrants entering Australia.
• DAA based therapy for recently acquired hepatitis C – II (DARE-C II)
  To evaluate the combination of SOF plus RBV in patients with recently acquired HCV infection.
• Defining sexual transmission of hepatitis C among gay men
  Defining risk and mechanisms of transmission for acute HCV infection within high-risk populations.
• Evaluation of a condom distribution trial in Victorian prisons
  The evaluation of a pilot program introducing condoms and dental dams into Victorian Prisons.
• Evaluation of the Joint Initiative for Maternal Newborn and Child Health in Myanmar
  Burnet led the evaluation of this United Nations program for maternal newborn and child health.
• Hit & Miss: Health needs of ex-prisoners with an IDU history
  Assessing drug use and health needs for six months post-release.
• Rapid-EC hepatitis C Pilot Study
  Investigating the feasibility of providing rapid point-of-care testing for hepatitis C in community clinics.
• Risk assessment of drug users in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
  This consultancy accessed the results of a rapid assessment and response of people who use drugs in Tanzania.
• TAP: Treatment and Prevention Hep C study
  Does treating people who inject drugs for their hep C reduce transmission and prevalence?
• The Prime Study: Treating hep C in primary healthcare setting
  Examining feasibility of treating people with genotype 1 hepatitis C in primary healthcare setting.