Better health and ageing for all Australians

Blood borne viruses and sexually transmissible infections

Third National Hepatitis C Strategy

The Third National Hepatitis C Strategy 2010-2013 builds on two previous strategies which guided Australia’s response to hepatitis C between 1999 and 2008. It is one of a suite of five strategies aiming to reduce the transmission of sexually transmissible infections (STIs) and blood borne viruses (BBVs), and the morbidity, mortality and personal and social impacts they cause.

In this section:

    Trends

    Hepatitis C is a significant public health problem and one of the most commonly reported notifiable diseases in Australia. Based on reported cases, hepatitis C transmission in Australia continued to occur predominantly among people with a recent history of injecting drug use. While hepatitis C is not classified as a Sexually Transmissible Infection (STI), there is risk of hepatitis C transmission if the blood of one person enters the bloodstream of another person during sexual intercourse.
    • The per capita rate of diagnosis of hepatitis C infection declined by around 10% from 58.6 per 100 000 in 2006 to 52.0 per 100 000 population in 2009.
    • At the end of 2010, there were an estimated 297 000 people who had been exposed to hepatitis C with 221,000 estimated to have chronic hepatitis C.
    • An estimated 10 000 new infections occur annually, and this figure has declined since 2001.
    • It is estimated that between 13,000 and 22,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are living with hepatitis C.
    • An estimated 3,760 people were receiving treatment for hepatitis C infection in 2010.

    Links to other strategies

    Guidelines/Information Sheets/Publications

    HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmissible infections in Australia Annual Surveillance Report 2011, published by the Kirby Institute for infection and immunity in society (formally the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research (NCHECR)).

    A list of publications is available from the publications page.