Forum for HIV/hep C
BENJAMIN RILEY
People Living with HIV/AIDS Victoria, Hepatitis C Victoria and the Victorian AIDS Council/Gay Men’s Health Centre have organised a community forum to discuss a recent rise in diagnoses of acute hepatitis C infections in HIV-positive men who have sex with men.
The forum is on Tuesday, June 14 at 6.30pm at the Positive Living Centre, 51 Commercial Rd, Prahran.
It will be open to HIV-positive men who have sex with men and their partners to talk about the recent developments along with general information about hepatitis C, HIV/hepatitis C co-infections, and prevention strategies.
Speakers at the forum will include Dr Joe Sasadeusz from the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Dr Andrew Mahony from the Department of Health, and Hepatitis C Victoria’s community participation coordinator Garry Sattell.
The rise in co-infections was announced several weeks ago by the Victorian Department of Health, which stated that the infections may have been sexually transmitted.
Monitoring by the Department indicated that between May 2010 and April 2011, diagnoses of hepatitis C in HIV-positive men who have sex with men increased significantly on previous years to 37 cases.
In at least 19 of these, the diagnosing physician suspected sexual transmission of the hepatitis C infection.
info: www.plwhavictoria.org.au To RSVP for the forum, call 03 9863 8733.
