Lismore Liver Clinic is playing a key role in a campaign aimed at making Australia free of hepatitis C by 2030.

Around 182,000 Australians live with chronic infection, and the Northern Rivers is a hot spot. The TEST CURE LIVE campaign is aimed at the estimated 3000 people living in the region with the virus, to encourage them to seek a treatment that is 95% effective.



“If you think there is any chance you may have contracted hepatitis C, even if it was decades ago, through needles, a blood transfusion or tattoos, I would urge you to ask your GP for a blood test to find out,” says Krista Zohrab, Lismore Liver Clinic’s clinical nurse consultant.

“There is no reason to live with hepatitis C. A simple test followed by tablets for two or three months is all it takes to be cured. Treatment is cheap, with few or no side-effects, and 95% successful.”

Sometimes shame about their drug-using past can stop people from coming forward, Krista says, and she suggests that anyone not comfortable talking to their GP should call the Clinic direct on 6620 7539.

“We can help organise testing and treatment anywhere on the Northern Rivers,” she says.

The campaign – a Hepatitis Australia initiative in collaboration with Hepatitis NSW and the Northern NSW Local Health District – is aimed primarily at people 50 years and older. Many of them may have contracted the virus unknowingly in their youth, when it was only known as “non-A, non-B”. 

Hepatitis C can lie hidden for decades, a “silent” presence in the liver, showing few symptoms.

 If left untreated, it can cause fatigue, muscle aches, abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhoea, a rash and itching – symptoms many people mistakenly attribute to ageing.

As the virus progresses, hepatitis C can damage the liver slowly and silently, leading to cirrhosis (or scarring), liver cancer and liver failure.

Around 72,000 people have been cured since new hepatitis C antiviral medications were made available through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) in 2016 – more than 2200 of them in the Northern Rivers. 

The new range of medications are a massive improvement on the older treatments based upon the drug Interferon, which was gruelling and relatively ineffective.

Everyone over 18 with a Medicare card can access the new antivirals, Krista says.

Confirmation of a cure can be provided within 12 weeks of completing treatment, with those clearing the virus reporting feeling “transformed”, their wellbeing, energy and mental clarity restored, she says.

For more information, visit the TEST CURE LIVE website testcurelive.com.au.