Australian Scientists Work to Treat And Prevent Hepatitis C
Hepatitis C is truly a global issue and a group of scientists in Adelaide, Australia, have started a five-year project to find better treatment options and to create vaccines to fight the disease. More than 170 million around the world are infected with hepatitis C, and University of Adelaide virologists Dr. Michael Beard and Dr. Karla Helbig are putting themselves on the battlefield’s front lines and trying to identify antiviral proteins that will stifle the disease.
No effective vaccine exists right now and the interferon treatment currently used is basically a form of chemo and debilitating in itself. It also doesn’t work on all strands of hepatitis C or necessarily work the first time you take it. Its success rate is only between 50 percent and 80 percent. Hopefully this new project will give birth to better treatments and an effective vaccine.
Dr. Beard is an NHMRC RD Wright Research Fellow and head of the Hepatitis C Virus Research Group at the University of Adelaide and Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science. He says that this is the first time that anyone in Australia has studied both HIV-AIDS and hepatitis C: “The development of vaccines and better treatments for both these viruses are urgent global health priorities. This program brings together a team of researchers with skills in basic virology and immunology with experts who can translate laboratory findings into human clinical trials.
“In Australia, more than 264,000 people have been infected with the hepatitis C virus and there are approximately 10,000 new infections per year. A proportion of these are intravenous drug users.”
Until a better treatment and vaccine are developed, IDUs can practice harm reduction by changing their method of use. Rather than using needles to shoot heroin, they can choose a maintenance program or take an even greater step and detox off of heroin using Suboxone. With Suboxone treatment, you can be off needles immediately and off drugs entirely in as few as six weeks depending upon your situation. Get more information about Suboxone here.
For more information about this project, check out the University of Adelaide website.
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