Aboriginal people are disproportionately affected by hepatitis. We know why | #IndigenousX

In Hepatitis Awareness Week, @IndigenousX host Heather McCormack will be addressing the cycle that leads to high rates of viral hepatitis infection in Indigenous Australians and sharing materials to support them

It’s Hepatitis Awareness Week from 27 July to 2 August. In my role at Hepatitis NSW, I’ll be working to get the week’s three key messages across, particularly to Indigenous Australians.

When we talk about closing the gap, we often talk about very siloed ideas of what that means: there’s over-incarceration, the health gap and the education gap, for example. But viral hepatitis, and particularly hepatitis C, is one of those areas where it all links together in a horrible cycle that ends up disproportionately affecting Aboriginal people’s health.

Related: Charlie's story: life and death of the man forced to sleep rough while on dialysis

I cannot be any clearer that the easiest way to reduce hepatitis C transmission would be to introduce NSPs in prisons.

Related: If Aboriginal people are forced off their land, who will pass down the stories? | Kelly Briggs

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