November 2013

By Karyn Kaplan and Tracy Swan

The purpose of this manual is to provide information for you and your community. This information can be used to advocate for access to prevention and diagnosis of, and care and treatment for, hepatitis C virus (HCV).

The information here is written by and for people who are not medical specialists. We are treatment activists who learned about hepatitis C because it was a problem for people in our communities. We designed it to help you understand basic information about hepatitis C and coinfection with HIV: how it is transmitted, how to prevent hepatitis C, how a person can find out if he or she has hepatitis C, what happens to both HIV-negative and HIV-positive people who have hepatitis C, information used for making treatment decisions, and treatment options.

This manual is organized into short sections, and each section can be shared with a small group of people in less than one hour.

There are discussion points and action steps at the end of each section. The discussion points are intended to start conversations about the key issues raised in each section. The action steps are intended to start conversations about how to translate the key issues into advocacy in the community and to allow participants to find solutions together.