Up to 70 per cent of Victorians with suspected hepatitis C may not have received follow-up testing, putting them at risk of chronic liver disease and even cancer, University of Melbourne researchers say.
Testing rates for the disease — which affects almost 10 times more Australians than HIV — were lowest among young people aged 15-24, representing a massive missed opportunity for treatment before the disease becomes serious, according to a paper in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.
Lead author Kathryn Snow, of the University’s School of Population and Global Health, warned that liver cancer rates — which have tripled in Australia since 1982 — could spiral without a concerted effort to raise awareness of hepatitis C among GPs and people living with the disease.
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