EXCLUSIVE: Conservative Queensland Senator Ian Macdonald and his nephew are on a mission to tackle the stigma around hepatitis C and help improve access to life-saving treatments.
Senator Macdonald’s nephew Ian Pengelly, 44, was born with a form of haemophilia and contracted the potentially-deadly hepatitis C virus as a young teenager from the unscreened blood-clotting factor he was given as a part of his treatment during the 1980s.
This week, with the support of his uncle, Mr Pengelly is speaking publicly about his battle with the disease for the first time, and will detail his journey in a new book to be launched by Hepatitis Australia in Parliament House on Tuesday.
Around 230,000 Australians are believed to be living with chronic hepatitis C, a blood-borne virus which affects the liver and kills around 600 people each year.
Read more...
Showing posts with label Stigma. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stigma. Show all posts
Monday, June 15, 2015
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
LePage wrongly blames ‘illegals’ for diseases in Maine
Blaming immigrants for local woes — they’re taking your jobs, they’re a drain on public assistance programs and making your taxes go up — has long been a staple of Republican campaigns. The new strategy is to blame illegal immigrants for disease outbreaks in America, when there is no evidence to support this.
In spontaneous remarks during his State of the State address last week, Gov. Paul LePage tied these immigrants to a costly uptick in hepatitis C, HIV and tuberculosis.
“But this is the problem with some of the illegals that are here today,” the governor said. “When a refugee comes here from a foreign country, they get a medical assessment and we know their health. But when they are here illegally, they don’t get medical assessments.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)