Being cured of hepatitis C has also set Bulli man Bill Lenane free from his troubled past.
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He was just 22, and a heavy drug user, when in 1979 he was diagnosed with the infectious disease after donating blood.
His drug addiction led him to crime and he would spend nearly two decades in prison – with little treatment for his condition.
His last stint inside ended in 2002 and he’s made a new life for himself – yet his diagnosis served as a constant reminder of his former life.
So when the 61-year-old was offered a place in a clinical trial for a new class of hep C treatments last year, he jumped at the chance.
‘’In 2013 I learnt that the disease had progressed, that I was in the early stages of cirrhosis of the liver,’’ Mr Lenane said.
‘’Then last year I was approved for a trial and I just had to take a pill for 24 weeks. By the end of that, no virus was detected in my blood.
‘’By eradicating the virus, it means my cirrhosis doesn’t get any worse, but more than that it means I don’t have anything binding me back to those days of drugs and crime.’’
More than 30,000 Australians – including 326 Wollongong residents – with chronic hep C were treated with direct-acting antiviral (DAA) drugs available on the pharmaceutical benefits scheme in 2016.
It means I don’t have anything binding me back to those days of drugs and crime.
- Bill Lenane
According to a report released on Tuesday, the rapid uptake of the treatment program puts Australia on track to eliminate hep C within 10 years.
The Kirby Institute report release also coincided with the availability of the latest hep C drug treatment, Zepatier, on the PBS.
Professor Greg Dore, head of the Kirby Institute’s Viral Hepatitis Clinical Research Program, welcomed the new treatment option.
‘’Australia has a unique opportunity to eliminate a major infectious disease, potentially the first opportunity through treatment intervention,’’ Professor Dore said.
‘’Providing Australians living with hep C ongoing access to effective, well-tolerated medications will help curb transmission of the virus, reduce rates of liver disease, and eliminate hep C as a major public health issue within a decade.’’
Mr Lenane, who volunteers with Hepatitis NSW and speaks to youth battling addiction, said giving people better access to treatment – and education – would help eradicate the disease.
