HEPATITIS C infection rates in Frankston, the Mornington Peninsula and neighbouring Casey are among the highest in Australia, with people who used drugs in the 1970s and 80s emerging as the highest risk group to have the blood-born virus.
A recently released report shows that almost 2600 residents from the three south-eastern suburbs were treated for the illness last year, a ten-fold increase in previous years.
But Frankston specialist Dr David Badov says the numbers are promising, revealing a new trend in sufferers seeking treatment with cheaper medications that are 98 per cent effective.
Dr Badov, who is head of gastroenterology at Frankston Hospital and has run a Hepatitis C clinic in Frankston for more than 20 years, said the results from the Kirby Institute report indicate that elimination of the disease, which is a major public health risk and can destroy a patient’s liver, is now a possibility within 10 to 15 years.
He said the large number of people being treated last year did not show that infections were increasing, but was an indication that treatment was better, affordable and easier to take.
Last year several previously expensive new treatments were made available under the pharmaceutical benefits scheme, and unlike earlier intravenous drugs, are taken orally and do not cause debilitating side effects.
Hepatitis C can only be transferred by blood to blood contact and has long been stigmatised and associated with illicit drug use.
However, Dr Badov said that since the new treatments recently became available, he was seeing a lot of middle-aged patients who may have only “dabbled” in drugs once 30 or 40 years ago, but were only now finding out, or had recently sought treatment.
“Some people I have seen have suspected or known about their infection, but were not prepared to take earlier treatments because of the nausea and other side effects,” he said.
“The great thing now for anyone who has been worried about having the virus, or taking the treatment, is that it’s better and has a 98 per cent success rate.”
