Men Aged 40-49

Here you’ll find participants’ accounts of hepatitis C diagnosis, living with hepatitis C, treatment and cure. The people and stories were carefully selected to highlight diversity in backgrounds and experiences. While this website is not able to tell every possible story of hepatitis C and treatment in Australia, it can show just how different people and their experiences are. In the stories can be found details of the many important concerns and circumstances our participants negotiated in living with and having treatment for hepatitis C.

The stories presented here rely on participant reports of overdose. Some experiences may not conform to medical definitions of overdose, and some responses described may not reflect medical advice.

While these narratives were written from the interview transcripts and rely on participants’ own words, some aspects have been paraphrased to improve coherence and readability. In making these changes we have worked hard to remain faithful to the original meaning and intentions. Some experiences may also be presented in other sections of the website, using more detailed quotations.

Alexander

Alexander was diagnosed with hepatitis C in 1996 when he was in prison and says that while he wanted to be cured of it, over the years he was ‘never that concerned’.

Colin

Colin is a mental health support worker. He was diagnosed with hepatitis C in 1996, when he was in prison.

Evan

Evan was diagnosed with hepatitis C around the late 1990s.

Lee

A blood test in 1999 indicated that Lee had hepatitis C antibodies, but later tests suggested that he didn’t have an active disease and had cleared the virus spontaneously

Miguel