AIVL reports on the Viral Hepatitis Conference

Launch of the Auckland Statement at the
Viral Hepatitis Conference. Photo: Petrana Lorenz.   

The  8th Australasian Conference on Viral Hepatitis, hosted by ASHM, was held 8-12 September 2012 in Auckland.

AIVL attended the conference and played a major role through participation on the conference organising committee, working groups and on the drafting and launch of the Auckland Statement.



The Auckland Statement, launched at the conference on 10 September, calls for urgent action on viral hepatitis in Australia and New Zealand, outlining clear targets to reduce new viral hepatitis infections and get more people onto treatment.

AIVL's attendance at the conference was a resounding success in terms of the number of abstracts the staff had accepted highlighting the range of materials and work our organisation covers. AIVL's first short film on stigma and discrimination towards people who inject drugs, An Afternoon with Max Marshall, was extremely well received and has been requested for showing in other forums.

The AIVL stall trialled a new way of showcasing our projects and programs with a video loop running throughout the day, this format  generated a lot of interest and discussion.

We had an extremely fruitful meetings with the drug user organisations from New Zealand  while recognising that both countries have differing drug usage patterns many many issues are common to our communities. As  always we bought back a wealth of information to pass onto our peers and communities to increase their knowledge and health literacy  enabling them to make personalised choices about their treatment and their health.