Hepatitis
C
An Australian Perspective
About the editors
Nick Crofts is Head of Epidemiology and Social Research at the Macfarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public Health. His major research interests are in the epidemiology and control of bloodborne viruses among injecting drug users in Australia and Asia. He has twice been a member of the Australian National Council on AIDS, Hepatitis C and Related Diseases and is currently a member of its Hepatitis C Subcommittee, twice on its state counterpart, and a member of each of the three NHMRC Working Parties on Hepatitis C to date.
Greg Dore is a Senior Lecturer in Epidemiology, National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research, The University of New South Wales, and Infectious Diseases Physician, St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney. Greg has been involved in the area of hepatitis C for several years, in academic research, clinical, and public health policy capacities. His major research interests are hepatitis C transmission, natural history, and HIV co-infection. He has contributed to the development of strategies for management of people with hepatitis C, through close collaboration with both government and community sectors. He was a member of the steering committees for the development of the New South Wales Treatment and Care Strategy and the First National Hepatitis C Strategy. As an infectious diseases physician specialising in viral hepatitis and HIV, his clinical role at both the community and tertiary care levels has informed both his public health policy and research work.
Stephen Locarnini is Divisional Head of Research and Molecular Development at the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory. His main research interests include viral hepatitis and antiviral chemotherapy with an emphasis on the basic virology of the various agents of hepatitis, the immunopathogenesis of hepatitis, as well as prevention and public health control measures. He is a member of the Therapeutic Goods Committee and on the Scientific Boards of both Gilead Sciences and Triangle Pharmaceuticals.
About the contributors
Campbell Aitken completed a PhD in geography in 1992, then worked in water resources research and economics before joining the Epidemiology and Social Research Unit of the Burnet Institute in 1995. He has worked on a broad spectrum of topic in the fields of illicit drugs and bloodborne virus epidemiology, but particularly on injecting drug use and hepatitis. Dr Aitken is a Senior Research Officer at MBC, and has been the Deputy Director of the Burnet Institute's Centre for Harm Reduction since April 1998.
Jim Arachne’s interest in complementary therapies began after ten years of biological research with the CSIRO and completing separate Applied Science degrees in biology and health education. He holds qualifications in diverse fields of complementary medicine including western herbalism, clinical nutrition, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and ayurvedic medicine. For the last 15 years he has been Australia’s foremost complementary therapies educator for people with HIV and more recently has been conducting seminars on hepatitis C and complementary therapies throughout Australia and New Zealand. He is employed as Complementary Therapies’ Information Officer at the Victorian AIDS Council, is a practising herbalist, and a member of the Hepatitis C Council of Victoria.
Scott Bowden, PhD, is Senior Scientist in Molecular Microbiology at the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory (VIDRL) in Melbourne. He is an Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Department of Microbiology at Monash University and in the Department of Applied Biology and Biotechnology at RMIT University. Dr Bowden is a member of the Advisory Board of the Hepatitis C Council of Victoria, and a regular speaker in the HIV and Hepatitis C GP Education Program. His major expertise is in the area of application of molecular biotechnology to infectious disease diagnosis.
David Bowen is a postgraduate research scholar at the A W Morrow Gastroenterology and Liver Centre, Centenary Institute, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and University of Sydney. His main research interest is the role of the liver in the immune system.
Neil Boyce is a Transfusion Medicine specialist and Manager of Intellectual Capital at the Australian Red Cross Blood Service, Victoria. His background is in clinical immunology and internal medicine in Australia and Germany. Upon joining the Australian Red Cross Blood Service, Neil assumed responsibility for managing case-triggered HCV Lookback, and the Victorian donor-targeted HCV Lookback program.
Patrick Coghlan is the Director of the Australian Red Cross Blood Service in Victoria, Australia. Patrick has extensive experience of transfusion medicine, hematology, and the plasma industry in Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. He was intimately involved in managing HIV testing strategies for blood donors in Australia’s Blood Services and the establishment of donor-targeted Lookback programs in Victoria. He also represented the Australian Red Cross on Advisory Committees to Australia’s health ministers on HIV/AIDS and HCV.
Sue Conrad (BSc Hons) serves on the Hepatitis C Council of Queensland (Inc.) Board of Management. She has been involved with the Hepatitis C community since 1996 and has worked in health and science since 1986. As an undergraduate, Sue volunteered at the Hepatitis C Council of Western Australia providing telephone information and support. Sue continued her volunteer work in a similar capacity with the Hepatitis C Council of Queensland, where she also undertook research examining psychosocial elements of quality of life among people with chronic health conditions (1998-99). In 1999-2000, Sue undertook a large quality of life study exploring personal experiences of living with chronic hepatitis C at the Centre for Public Health Research (Queensland University of Technology), in collaboration with the Department of Medicine, University of Queensland, and the Royal Brisbane Hospital Research Foundation.
Genevieve Costigan is a freelance journalist and editor with a particular interest in public health issues. She was the lead writer of The Manual for Reducing Drug Related Harm in Asia (Family Health International, Bangkok, 2000). Ms Costigan has a Bachelor of Arts (University of Melbourne) and a Graduate Diploma of Journalism (RMIT).
Michael Dunne is a Senior Lecturer in Epidemiology in the School of Public Health at the Queensland University of Technology.
Eric Gowans is the Director of the Sir Albert Sakzewski Virus Research Centre (SASVRC) in Queensland, Australia. Originally from Edinburgh, Scotland, Professor Gowans has been in Australia since the 1980s and has held various positions in Adelaide, as well as his current Queensland base. As a Director of SASVRC, Professor Gowans has obtained funding for numerous projects from NHMRC, WHO, universities, and the Ramaciotti Foundation and total grant funding is about A$2.3 million. Professor Gowans has 98 publications comprising peer review articles, book chapters, and invited reviews in the fields of hepatitis virus B, C and D. Current SASVRC projects include the research and development of potential vaccines for viral hepatitis.
Jane Hocking is a Senior Research Officer who joined the Epidemiology and Social Research Unit of the Burnet Institute in 1996. Her research interests include the epidemiology of bloodborne viruses and sexually transmissible infections and she currently manages the Victorian HIV/AIDS Surveillance Registry at the Burnet Institute on behalf of the Victorian Department of Human Services. Jane is also a lecturer in Biostatistics at the University of Melbourne.
John Kaldor was awarded his PhD from University of California, Berkeley, in 1982 and went on to work in cancer epidemiology in France at the International Agency for Research in Cancer. In 1989, he returned to Australia as Deputy Director of the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research, where he was promoted to Professor of Epidemiology in 1995. His research and public health interest in hepatitis began in 1991 through collaborative work with the Australian Red Cross Blood Service, and now extends to surveillance programs involving people who inject drugs, through to studies of the natural history of hepatitis C infection. He was a member of the ANCAHRD Hepatitis C Subcommittee in 1998-99 and on the organising committee for the 1st Australasian Conference on Hepatitis C held in Sydney in 1997.
Jenny Kelsall has a background in the arts and an arts degree (BA) from Auckland University. She has worked at the Burnet Institute for the past ten years in the Epidemiology and Social Research Unit, with a focus on injecting drug issues and bloodborne viruses. She has worked on a range of peer-based research and education projects across Australia in the area of HIV/AIDS, HCV, and injecting drug use. She is employed at The Centre for Harm Reduction, Burnet Institute's street-based research facility in Footscray, Victoria, focusing on research into patterns of drug use among heroin users of Vietnamese origin.
Michael Kerger has worked in the community sector for over 20 years, initially with inner urban youth, and for the last ten years at the Burnet Institute’s Epidemiology and Social Research Unit with injecting drug users, with the main focus on bloodborne viruses. He has worked and consulted on numerous peer research and education projects across Australia in the areas of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C and injecting drug use. He is a regular lecturer in the Counsellors’ Accreditation Program in HIV and HCV Antibody Testing, on pre-test and post-test counselling. He is currently manager of The Centre for Harm Reduction, Burnet Institute’s street-based research facility in Footscray, Victoria.
Stuart Loveday is the Executive Officer of the Hepatitis C Council of NSW and is a founder executive member and Vice President of the Australian Hepatitis Council. With a Bachelor of Commerce degree in business administration, his professional background is in the use of alcohol and other drugs, youth homelessness, and human rights organisational and financial management in the United Kingdom. Having served on a range of national Australian hepatitis committees and working parties since 1994, Stuart is a community representative on the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Hepatitis C in NSW, on a range of NSW Area Health Service planning and advisory committees, and the Australian National Council on AIDS, Hepatitis C and Related Diseases (ANCAHRD): Clinical Trials and Research Committee (CTARC).
Graeme Macdonald is a hepatologist and lecturer at the Department of Medicine, University of Queensland, and a researcher in the Population and Clinical Sciences Division, Queensland Institute of Medical Research.
Margaret MacDonald is a Senior Research Assistant at the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research. One of her major responsibilities is monitoring HIV and hepatitis C infection among injecting drug users in Australia. She consequently has a strong interest in hepatitis C transmission.
Geoffrey McCaughan is Professor and Head, A W Morrow Gastroenterology and Liver Centre; Director, Liver Immunobiology Laboratory, Centenary Institute; and Physician-in-Charge, Australian National Liver Transplant Unit, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. His main research interests include the molecular biology of hepatitis C and other immune-mediated liver diseases, and molecular mechanisms of cirrhosis.
Anne Mijch, MB BS (Hons), FRACP, Grad Dip Epi Biostat, OAM, trained in Sydney and at the Fairfield Hospital in Melbourne, at which she then worked as an infectious diseases physician from 1982 until 1996, latterly as Director of the AIDS Service. Since 1996, she has been Head of the HIV/AIDS Clinical Service at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne. She is a member of the ANCAHRD Hepatitis C Committee, Secretary of the Australian Society for HIV Medicine, and a member of the Victorian Ministerial Advisory Committee on AIDS, Hepatitis and Related Diseases.
Chris Puplick is the Chair of the Australian National Council on AIDS, Hepatitis C and Related Diseases (ANCAHRD). He is also Chair of the AIDS Trust of Australia and the Central Sydney Area Health Service. He is Privacy Commissioner and President of the Anti-Discrimination Board of New South Wales.
William Sievert MD, FRACP, is the Head of Hepatology at Monash Medical Centre in Melbourne and has been involved in national and international clinical trials of therapy for viral hepatitis. He is the Chair of the Australian Liver Association and a member of the Clinical Trials and Research Committee of the Australian National Council on AIDS, Hepatitis C and Related Diseases.
Bryan Speed is an infectious diseases physician with an interest in the epidemiology of infections. He worked at Fairfield Hospital (Melbourne) until its closure and is now based at the Austin and Repatriation Medical Centre, Heidelberg, and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute, East Melbourne. During 1999-2000, Bryan spent a 12-month sabbatical with the Epidemiology and Social Research Unit of the Burnet Institute, where he investigated extrahepatic manifestations of hepatitis C.
Phillip Thompson BSc (Hons), PhD, is a senior postdoctoral fellow working in the Hepatitis C Group within the Division of Research and Molecular Development at the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory. He has been working in the field of molecular virology since 1995 and has a special interest in enzymes involved in the replication process. His current research projects include studies of the putative HCV replication complex, construction of a HCV replicon, and the development of in vitro assays on HCV non-structural proteins for use in the screening of antiviral compounds.
Jack Wallace is the Executive Officer of the Australian Hepatitis Council and sits on the Australian National Council on AIDS, Hepatitis C and Related Diseases Hepatitis C Committee, and the Intergovernmental Committee on AIDS, Hepatitis C and Related Diseases.
Alex Wodak completed his medical studies and trained as a physician at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne, and then began research on alcohol-related liver disease while working in London. Since 1982, he has been the Director of the Alcohol and Drug Service, St Vincent’s Hospital, Darlinghurst. Major interests include prevention of spread of HIV and hepatitis C among injecting drug users, brief interventions for problem drinkers, treatment of drug users in prison and drug policy. Dr Wodak is the President of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation and President of the International Harm Reduction Association. He is a member of a number of state and national committees and has also often worked in developing countries to assist efforts to control HIV infection among injecting drug users.
Erica Wood is a transfusion medicine specialist with the Australian Red Cross Blood Service in Victoria, Australia. Erica’s experience in transfusion and hematology in Australia and North America included responsibility for HCV counselling of seropositive donors, and participation (on behalf of the American Red Cross) in their donor-targeted HCV Lookback program.
Amany Zekry is a postgraduate research scholar at the A W Morrow Gastroenterology and Liver Centre, Centenary Institute, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and University of Sydney. His major research interest is the immunobiology of hepatitis C infection post liver transplantation.