00:00The Northern Territory's hepatitis rates appear grim, with the diagnosis of the viral infection
00:09skyrocketing in recent years.
00:12But healthcare professionals say it's not all bad news, and the increased numbers are
00:17a sign access to healthcare is improving.
00:24Most people in the NT who have hepatitis B have had it their whole lives.
00:29With hepatitis B, it's usually, you know, it's babies, it's people that are either contracted
00:34from birth or at a really young age that are most likely to develop chronic hepatitis B,
00:38which requires lifelong treatment.
00:40Fifteen years ago, the mortality rate in the NT was the highest in the country, mostly
00:46in indigenous remote communities.
00:48Especially here, Elkau and other parts of the community, it's a vulnerable death, a lot
00:56of them, and we are doing ceremony, after ceremony, after ceremony.
01:04As you can imagine, if you are being told that you have a chronic health condition that you're
01:08going to have for your whole life, you need to have care every six months, you know, you
01:12have a risk of liver cancer if you don't look after your liver well and don't engage with
01:17the treatment to prevent that, that can be really scary, and that can be even more scary
01:24if it's explained to you in a language that's not your first language.
01:27The Northern Territory has had the biggest decrease of hepatitis B mortality rates across
01:33jurisdictions since 2011, and we're the only state or territory in the country to have closed
01:40the gap in hepatitis B care.
01:43Due primarily to the Hep B PASS program, which brings healthcare into communities with elders
01:48and in language.
01:50We're achieving the national strategy targets, so that means that we have 99% of people diagnosed,
02:02so we know that they have chronic hepatitis B, and the national target's 80%.
02:06health that cares about the whole community.
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