Dr Kerryn Phelps, Health Editor, with Tracey Grimshaw, Channel Nine, 'Today'

GRIMSHAW: What exactly is Hep C?

PHELPS: Hepatitis C is one of the viruses, there's Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B - and this is Hepatitis C, and they are very dissimilar viruses, but, the one thing that makes them alike, is that they all cause inflammation of the liver.

Hepatitis C was always called, up until 1990, 'non A', 'non B' because there was this other hepatitis that they couldn't pin a virus tag onto. They discovered that a number of people after blood transfusions were getting this form of hepatitis, and it wasn't until about the late 1980's - 1990 that they were actually able to identify this virus, find a test for it, and to be able to test for it in blood transfusions, and that's where they discovered it.

GRIMSHAW: Is that why it's on the increase, because those people who were infected before that time are now being detected?

PHELPS: I think it's been around for many decades before then, but certainly more people are aware of it now and more people are testing for it. And if they, for example, are feeling unwell and it's got fairly vague symptoms and indeed, people may not even know that they have a problem, until 10 or 15 years down the track. They might find that they are very tired, they feel sick, they've got stomach pain, joint and muscle pains, they're losing weight, sort of feel like they have the flu all the time. Quite often feel depressed, unable to sort of get out of their own way and then they go along for testing and awareness by the medical profession - a lot of these cases are being picked up.

GRIMSHAW: So, being sort of a sleeper condition, I guess over those 10 or 15 years where you haven't been diagnosed, you effectively, potentially have been passing it on too, haven't you?

PHELPS: It is possible to pass it on. We do know that the majority of these cases are 80 per cent of cases are transmitted by sharing of needles between injecting drug users. And, of course, we should know by now, and anybody who uses injecting drugs should know that they don't share equipment, any sort of equipment. But that still is obviously happening because there are 16,000 new cases being reported every year, still. But even in some cases, domestic transmission, through sharing toothbrushes and razor blades is a possibility, but not usual social contact and, in fact there's not a lot of sexual transmission either.

GRIMSHAW: What about treatment then? What about this new combination therapy?

PHELPS: Well, this is the best news for people with Hepatitis C that we've had in many years, and that's the reason for this documentary, "The Big Combos". It's talking about combination treatment. Sometimes a drug called 'Interferon' has been used - Interferon is a naturally occurring chemical in the body, that helps the bodies immune system deal with viruses.

But what they're doing now, is combining it with 'Ribavirin', which is a tablet that's taken twice a day, and this combination of 'Interferon' with 'Ribavirin' is, I think, the greatest hope people with Hepatitis C have had for a long time, because there actually talking about clearing the virus from peoples systems, permanently.

GRIMSHAW: Is that a cure? If you clear it permanently from the system, that means cured?

PHELPS: I think it's early days yet, but the potential is certainly there that people can clear this virus from the system and live healthy lives. Now, we don't know how long that's going to last yet, but it's certainly a great glimmer of hope, and it's something people can look forward to. If they have Hepatitis C it's not going to be a course leading to Cirrhosis down the track. Inevitably, that there is definitely progress being made, it's a big decision to go onto the treatment, because it does have it's side effects. This documentary is aimed at helping people to make a decision about combination therapy, but if someone has Hepatitis C, they would go to their GP, they would be referred to a liver specialist for discussion about whether this would be appropriate for them.

GRIMSHAW: All right, thanks Kerryn.

PHELPS: Thanks, Tracey.

Ends