Australia stands at a crossroads familiar to many nations that have glimpsed the possibility of eliminating a disease only to hesitate at the final mile. With tools, treatments, and economic evidence firmly in hand, the country is nonetheless tracking to miss the majority of its 2030 hepatitis elimination targets — a failure that would cost $2.6 billion and, more gravely, continue to claim lives that medicine already knows how to save. The burden falls heaviest on those already carrying the most: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, people in custody, and communities long underserved
Australia risks $2.6B cost by missing 2030 hepatitis elimination targets
Nearly 1,000 Australians died from hepatitis B and C in 2023; over 200,000 currently live with these conditions, with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples disproportionately affected.
Hepatitis B can be managed, and hepatitis C can be cured. We have the tools.
Mark
Why is Australia failing so many of these targets when the tools exist?
Mimi
It's not that the tools don't work. It's that they're not reaching everyone who needs them. Testing, treatment, and care require sustained funding and coordination across multiple systems. The report suggests we're doing well on vaccination but struggling with diagnosis and access for harder-to-reach populations.
Mark
Who bears the real cost of this delay?
Mimi
The 200,000 people living with these diseases right now, and the thousand who died last year. But also Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, sex workers, people in custody—groups that already face barriers to healthcare. They'll keep dying while we debate.
Mark
The economic argument seems powerful. Why hasn't that moved the needle?
Mimi
It should. Seven dollars back for every dollar spent on hepatitis B, sixteen for hepatitis C. That's not a health argument anymore—it's a fiscal one. But governments move slowly, and hepatitis doesn't capture headlines the way other crises do.
Mark
What would actually change things?
Mimi
The Implementation Action Plans need to be funded. Not promised, not planned—funded. And they need to prioritize the populations being left behind. Testing in prisons, treatment access for people who use drugs, culturally appropriate care for Indigenous communities.
Mark
Is there any sign the government understands the urgency?
Mimi
Clynes says there's been excellent engagement from the Federal Government so far. But engagement isn't the same as commitment. The next four years will tell us whether this report becomes a catalyst or just another warning that gets filed away.
O Pulso
- Australia will miss 8 of 10 hepatitis B targets and 5 of 7 hepatitis C targets by 2030, despite having effective vaccines, treatments, and a cure already available.
- The projected cost of inaction is $2.6 billion — $1.17 billion from hepatitis B and $1.43 billion from hepatitis C — spanning treatment, lost productivity, and premature death.
- Nearly 1,000 Australians died from hepatitis B or C in 2023 alone, with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, people in custody, and marginalised communities bearing a disproportionate share of that toll.
- Every dollar invested in hepatitis B elimination returns an estimated seven dollars; for hepatitis C, the return is sixteen to one — making inaction not just a moral failure but an economic one.
- Hepatitis Australia is calling on the federal government to fully fund Implementation Action Plans through the Australian Centre for Disease Control before the four-year window to 2030 closes.
Australia stands at a crossroads familiar to many nations that have glimpsed the possibility of eliminating a disease only to hesitate at the final mile. With tools, treatments, and economic evidence firmly in hand, the country is nonetheless tracking to miss the majority of its 2030 hepatitis elimination targets — a failure that would cost $2.6 billion and, more gravely, continue to claim lives that medicine already knows how to save. The burden falls heaviest on those already carrying the most: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, people in custody, and communities long underserved by the systems meant to protect them. What remains is not a question of capability, but of will.
Australia has the medical tools to eliminate hepatitis B and C by 2030. It also has a compelling economic argument for doing so. What a new report questions is whether the country has the political will to act before the opportunity passes.
Modelling commissioned by Hepatitis Australia, drawing on data from the Doherty and Kirby Institutes, projects a $2.6 billion cost if elimination targets are missed — $1.17 billion attributable to hepatitis B and $1.43 billion to hepatitis C, spanning direct treatment, lost productivity, and premature death. The country is on track to fail eight of ten hepatitis B benchmarks and five of seven hepatitis C goals. Bright spots exist — childhood vaccination rates are strong, hepatitis C incidence is falling, and diagnosis rates are high — but they sit against a broader pattern of underperformance in treatment uptake, stigma reduction, and mortality.
More than 200,000 Australians currently live with one of these conditions. In 2023, close to 1,000 died. The burden is not evenly distributed: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, culturally and linguistically diverse communities, sex workers, and people with a history of injecting drug use face disproportionate risk and disproportionate neglect.
Hepatitis Australia chief executive Lucy Clynes put the choice plainly: invest now, or pay far more later — in dollars, in hospital pressure, and in lives. She pointed to the development of Implementation Action Plans with the Australian Centre for Disease Control as the critical next step, one that must be fully funded to translate strategy into outcomes. The arithmetic is unambiguous. The longer action is deferred, the higher the cost — and the more preventable the grief.
Australia has the tools to eliminate hepatitis B and C by 2030. It also has a clear economic case for doing so. What it may not have, according to a new report, is the will to finish the job before the window closes.
The modelling, commissioned by Hepatitis Australia and drawing on data from the Doherty Institute and the Kirby Institute, paints a stark picture: if the country fails to meet its elimination targets, the bill will be $2.6 billion. That figure encompasses both the immediate costs of treating disease and the longer-term toll of lost productivity, premature death, and ongoing healthcare burden. Hepatitis B alone accounts for $1.17 billion of that total—$964 million in direct treatment costs and $202 million in lost work and life. Hepatitis C adds another $1.43 billion, mostly in immediate expenses but with $40 million in downstream consequences.
The reason for this grim projection is straightforward: Australia is currently on track to miss most of its targets. Of the ten benchmarks set for hepatitis B elimination, the country will likely fail eight. For hepatitis C, it will fall short on five of seven goals. The nation is expected to succeed in vaccinating 95 percent of children against hepatitis B and in reducing the virus's presence in infants to 0.1 percent or lower. It is also projected to cut hepatitis C incidence by 90 percent and diagnose more than 90 percent of cases. But these wins mask a broader pattern of underperformance. Australia will not meet targets for preventing mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis B, finding people who don't yet know they're infected, reducing stigma in healthcare settings, improving quality of life for those affected, getting more people into treatment, or reducing deaths attributable to either disease.
Over 200,000 Australians currently live with hepatitis B or C. In 2023 alone, nearly 1,000 of them died. The burden falls disproportionately on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, on culturally and linguistically diverse communities, on sex workers, and on people in custody or with a history of injecting drug use. These are not abstract statistics. They represent families, communities, and preventable loss.
Lucy Clynes, chief executive of Hepatitis Australia, framed the choice starkly: the country can invest now or pay far more later. For every dollar spent on hepatitis B elimination, the return is estimated at seven dollars. For hepatitis C, it's sixteen dollars. "Failing to meet our hepatitis elimination targets will cost lives, increase pressure on hospitals and leave Australians carrying billions of dollars in avoidable costs," Clynes said. She emphasized that both diseases are manageable—hepatitis B can be controlled, hepatitis C can be cured—and that Australia has already demonstrated it can move the needle with proper funding and commitment.
The next phase, according to Clynes, is the development of Implementation Action Plans in collaboration with the Australian Centre for Disease Control. These plans will map priorities for the next four years and, critically, will need to be fully funded. Without that investment, the momentum that has been built will stall. The message is simple but urgent: the longer Australia delays, the steeper the cost—in dollars, in lives, and in the families who will lose someone they love to a disease that could have been eliminated.
Citações Notáveis
Failing to meet our hepatitis elimination targets will cost lives, increase pressure on hospitals and leave Australians carrying billions of dollars in avoidable costs.— Lucy Clynes, CEO of Hepatitis Australia
The longer we wait, the greater the cost.— Hepatitis Australia
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