WESTERN NSW has the highest rates of hepatitis C in the state, according to NSW Health data released this week.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
At 94 notifications per 100,000, the Far West Local Health District (LHD) had the highest notification rate, followed by the Western NSW LHD (which includes Dubbo) at 85.
The NSW Hepatitis B and C Strategies 2014 Annual Data Report revealed regional NSW had higher notification rates for hepatitis C than metropolitan Sydney.
In fact, the six LHDs with the highest notification rates were all outside Sydney.
Hepatitis C was a disease caused by a virus, one of many that could infect the liver. It lived in liver tissue and blood and could cause severe scarring and damage to the liver, producing long-lasting health effects. About three-quarters of people infected with hepatitis C developed chronic infection without treatment and some eventually developed liver failure or liver cancer.
Hepatitis NSW Acting CEO Robert Wisniewski said the data confirmed hepatitis C prevention was an ongoing challenge, especially in the state's rural and regional areas.
"The primary means of hepatitis C transmission remains the sharing of equipment used to inject drugs," he said.
"We need to ensure that everyone in NSW has access to the Needle and Syringe Program, so that people who inject drugs are able to use sterile equipment, every time."
Northern Sydney LHD had the lowest hepatitis C notification rate in NSW, with fewer than 20 notifications per 100,000 population.
The report also showed just 1.15 per cent of the estimated 90,000 people living with hepatitis C in NSW started treatment in 2014.
"Current treatment rates are far too low to stop the rising death toll from hepatitis C-related liver disease, with over 630 lives lost nationally in 2013," Mr Wisniewski said.
"Ongoing low treatment rates are a direct consequence of a lack of access to new, more effective hepatitis C drugs, which are easier to take, involve shorter treatment durations, produce significantly fewer side-effects and have exceptionally high cure rates."
Mr Wisniewski said with cure rates of more than 90 per cent, more people had been cured in the US using new drugs than the total number of people living with hepatitis C in Australia.
"The Australian health system is letting down people with hepatitis C," he said.
"We need the Commonwealth Government to list these new drugs on the PBS now - people living with chronic hepatitis C in NSW have waited long enough."