Natalie Cole has weathered the ups and downs of the music industry and come out singing, writes Harriet Cunningham.

You have to admit it. Natalie Cole is a survivor. The award-winning singer, songwriter, actor and performer once tried to fly out of a window under the influence of LSD. She cooked crack cocaine as a hotel burnt around her. During a 10-year battle with addiction she lost a marriage, money and, nearly, her life. And throughout her career, which spans four decades and encompasses multiple hit singles and nine Grammy awards, she has been haunted by the legacy of her father, Nat King Cole, the legendary jazz singer who died from lung cancer when she was just 15.

However, in 2009, just as she was preparing a tour to promote the new album, her past came screaming back to haunt her. She was diagnosed with hepatitis C during a routine check-up and advised that she must embark on a course of chemotherapy to halt the disease.

Six months into the treatment, she collapsed from kidney failure. She received a kidney transplant that year and was back on stage three months later. Cole is about to arrive in Australia, appearing with the Sydney, Queensland, Melbourne and

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Tourists who have gotten themselves tattooed or pierced whilst in Bali are being warned to seek medical advice after a Western Australian man reportedly contracted HIV during a recent holiday trip.

Australian health officials are urging travelers to be careful about getting tattoos or piercings in developing countries as the regulations and codes of practice don't necessarily comply with Australia's. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns that to avoid infections from HIV and viral hepatitis, individuals should not share needles for tattoos, body piercings, or other injections.

The WA Health notified Commonwealth authorities last week after the WA resident undertook a blood test when he returned from Indonesia. The victim's age and sex and details of where the tattoo was obtained in Bali have not been released.

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New drugs to treat HIV and hepatitis C could be developed after a finding by Melbourne scientists.

The breakthrough means researchers now have a better understanding of how the deadly viruses spread. The University of Melbourne led teams from around the world, and for the first time was able to map the structure of an enzyme in the body, which helps infection replicate and spread.

Associate Professor Spencer Williams said the findings significantly advanced understanding of how the viruses reproduce.

"We think it has got broad significance and we think it's an important achievement in the area," he said.

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An experimental vaccine against the chronic liver disease hepatitis C has shown promising results in its first clinical trial in humans, say researchers from the University of Oxford, UK, who write about their findings in the 4 January online issue of Science Translational Medicine. However, they caution there is still a long way to go before we have an effective vaccine ready for clinical use.

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The School of Psychology (University of Adelaide) and the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology (Royal Adelaide Hospital) have commenced a research study exploring the desire for psychological support in people living with chronic hepatitis C.

The psychological burden of chronic hepatitis C is considerable and particularly evident in high rates of depression and anxiety in those suffering from this disease. This psychiatric morbidity diminishes quality of life, aggravates perceived physical symptomatology and reduces rates of antiviral treatment commencement, adherence and clearance.

The survey takes 10 to 20 minutes to complete and includes sections on demographic information, desire for psychological support, history of psychological support, disease and treatment characteristics, psychological symptomatology and access to social support.

To access this survey CLICK HERE

This was a life or death decision, and the cry of 'blood on their hands' is appropriate, for both the Republicans who insisted on this and the Democrats who let it happen.

Most Tuesday evenings, I stand in an alley behind the grocery store with a Buddhist monk and a few other volunteers, handing sterile syringes to people as they drop their old syringes into the bright red biohazard bucket. I’ve been doing this for fifteen years, almost as long as Congress insisted that federal taxpayer dollars couldn’t be used to purchase the syringes we exchange.

Two years ago, determined policy advocates convinced the Democratic leadership that they had the votes to undo this costly decision. People across the country met with their representatives, having sometimes difficult conversations, educating them about the research, the weight of the evidence, and the impact of HIV and hepatitis in their communities.

And science carried the day, with Congress voting to lift the ban. Since then, federal funding has been used to create new programs and expand existing ones, reaching communities that never had sterile syringe access. It’s gone to substance misuse treatment programs and health clinics and HIV organizations, giving people who inject drugs better tools to protect their health.

Now that all comes to an end, as Congress just voted to reinstate the absurd ban on federal funding for syringe access programs. I hope that those programs will find ways to raise the funds to keep going.

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Laura Kennedy, original bassist and co-founder of cornerstone no-wave/post-punk band Bush Tetras passed away due to complications from Hepatitis C.  According to Brooklyn Vegan, Kennedy Died on Monday November 14.

Kennedy was diagnosed with Hepatitis C almost 20 years ago while living and playing music in New York city.  She had been living in Minnesota.  Fundraising initatives from her friends and well-wishers helped fund her weighty medical bills and aided her recovery.

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In fact, ideally, a tenfold increase was needed, she said.

Hepatitis C remains one of the most commonly notified diseases each year and about 1.3 per cent of Australia's population is believed to have been exposed to the virus. About 25 out of 100 will clear the virus naturally from their bodies, without the aid of medication, and the remaining 75 will develop chronic hepatitis C and carry the virus for life, if not treated.

While such hepatitis C treatment had been around for a decade, said Ms Tolliday, its success rate had recently soared from about 15-20 per cent to as high as 50-80 per cent, depending on the strain of the virus, with fewer side effects.

New drugs were expected to be released next year that would further boost success rates and allow treatment of teenagers and children.

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CHI is a unique study as people get the opportunity to participate in surveys and share their experiences at numerous times, as they are happening. Most other research studies merely provide a brief “snapshot” of one particular time point.

These types of studies fail to highlight the changes in the lives of people with hepatitis C. These changes may include attitudes, relationships, and responses to the development and discovery of information and treatments.

We hope that this study will tell us a range of things about the lives of people with hepatitis C. The findings will then be used to help guide community organisations, governments and the entire medical profession in health service planning, provision and decision making.

CHI is a completely anonymous, online study. Let your experiences count by telling us about your experiences with hep c.

To register for this study or for more information CLICK HERE

These results compare with a 68% response rate seen for the other licensed hepatitis C PI telaprevir (Incivo in the EU or Incivek in the US) in co-infected patients, which were presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) this February.In the case of telaprevir, these results were at week twelve of a 48-week study.

One difference in results between the two drugs was that only 5% of patients receiving placebo in the telaprevir study had an undetectable viral load at week 12.

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