The often-fatal hepatitis C virus is running rampant through some sections of the community, posing one of the greatest threats to public health in recent years in Australia. While Australian health authorities have had remarkable success in checking the spread of HIV among intravenous drug users, hepatitis C has slipped through the net. Australian research just published in the British Medical Journal shows intravenous drug users and former prison inmates are at a particularly high risk of contracting the blood-borne virus.