Hollywood celebrity Pamela Anderson's announcement that she has hepatitis C was a major talking point at this recent conference. Unlike similar announcements of HIV infection, Ms Anderson has not positioned herself as a celebrity campaigner — there is no princess or pop star championing the rights of people with hepatitis C or demanding extra funding for research or services. Hepatitis C has been characterised as an "epidemic of difference",1 affecting people from a wide variety of ethnic, cultural and class backgrounds, with implications for the ability of people with hepatitis C to organise and advocate for changes in policy to improve their lives.
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- 1 National Centre in HIV Social Research, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW.
- 2 Hepatitis C Council of NSW, Sydney, NSW.
Correspondence: c.treloar@unsw.edu.au
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