Eliminate Hepatitis C Australia (EC Australia)

Partnering to eliminate hepatitis C as a public health threat by 2030

The Eliminate Hepatitis C Australia (EC Australia) partnership was established in 2019. It brings together people with living and lived experience, community organisations, health services, government, and researchers and implementation scientists to help build a framework for Australia’s response to the elimination of hepatitis C as a public health threat by 2030.

View our partners on this page.

EC Australia is committed to supporting community and health services to increase hepatitis C testing and treatment. We want to maintain high numbers of people accessing hepatitis C testing, treatment and care. 

EC Australia is a flagship initiative led by Burnet Institute. Burnet is a global leader in hepatitis C research and implementation science. 

Increasing hepatitis C care 

Direct-acting antivirals have revolutionised hepatitis C care. 

Since becoming available through Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme in 2016, over 100,000 people have been cured of hepatitis C. 

The challenge is finding, testing and linking to care the 68,000 Australians who are living with hepatitis C infection. 

Our work aims to address this challenge. 

Our approach 

EC Australia takes a strategic, cohesive and multipronged approach to increase hepatitis C testing and treatment to achieve elimination. 

We pride ourselves on bringing together innovative ideas and evidence-based approaches to help solve the hepatitis C challenge. 

We value the dedication and passion of community leaders and elders, peers, healthcare workers, and researchers in the EC Australia partnership. 

Our collective efforts strengthen our work and progress towards hepatitis C elimination.

Key achievements

During phase 1, we: 

• established a network of over 75 partner organisations and provided funding to implement key elimination activities 
• delivered the first peer-led national health promotion campaign ‘It’s Your Right’
• funded and supported 21 implementation projects across all jurisdictions 
• produced annual reports that monitor our progress towards hepatitis C elimination in Australia 
• received $1.25M to deliver first national hepatitis C campaign for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples called ‘Every Yarn Counts’ 
• mapped policy priorities and coordinated a national advocacy committee 
• secured an additional $21M in funding for ECA partners and ongoing hepatitis C projects. 

Principal components

Health promotion

We delivered the first peer-led National Health Promotion Campaign It's Your Right, to increase awareness about hepatitis C treatments among people who inject drugs.

The National Reference Group for It’s Your Right includes representation from partnership organisations: Australian Injecting and Illicit Drug Users League (AIVL), Harm Reduction Victoria, Hepatitis NSW, NSW Users and AIDS Association (NUAA), Peer Based Harm Reduction WA, La Trobe University, Burnet Institute and members from the AIVL National Peer Network.

For more information:

• Visit the It's Your Right campaign website.
• View findings from the evaluation of a peer-led national hepatitis C health promotion campaign.
• Learn about how we co-designed ‘It’s Your Right’.

Workforce development

We’ve funded and supported 21 implementation projects across all jurisdictions. These projects focused on reducing structural barriers to accessing hepatitis C testing and treatments and aimed to improve the delivery of health services and the streamlining of the hepatitis C care pathway. A number of these projects went on to secure additional funding respectively, resulting in a total of $21M in additional funding for EC Australia partners and ongoing hepatitis C projects, as a result of their initial work with EC Australia.

Workshops

Four workshops have been delivered to members of the Eliminate hepatitis C Australia (ECA) partnership. The topics and length of these workshops were developed through consultation with project partners participating in ECA. Watch the recordings:

• Workshop 1: How to write a survey for public health 
• Workshop 2: Introduction to REDCap 
• Workshop 3: How to visually present data  
• Workshop 4: Hepatitis C Surveillance 101. 

See also on this page:

• Workforce development infographics
• Practice support toolkits.

Implementation research

This component created a partnership with Kirby Institute to prepare national annual reports with the latest hepatitis C data across Australia. The report is called ‘Australia’s progress towards hepatitis C elimination.’

Aboriginal health plan

This strategy cut across the other 4 key components of EC Australia. It supported a holistic, comprehensive and culturally safe approach to hepatitis C care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. This stream of work developed the first national hepatitis C campaign for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples called Every Yarn Counts.