P56 Opportunities for hepatitis organisations to compliment needle syringe programs for people who inject drugs by providing hepatitis C treatments

to new hepatitis C therapies for people who inject drugs

Improving the quality of needle and syringe programmes: an overlooked strategy for preventing hepatitis C among people who inject drugs

Introduction The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is 5 to 20 times more infectious than HIV [1]. Even more alarmingly, HCV has the capacity to survive outside of the human body for weeks. Unfortunately, this makes the reuse of injecting equipment that has been contaminated with HCV a highly effective means of spreading the disease [2]. The prevalence of HCV among people who inject drugs (PWID) is shocki...

Needle syringe programmes and opioid substitution therapy for preventing hepatitis C transmission in people who inject drugs

BACKGROUND Needle syringe programmes and opioid substitution therapy for preventing hepatitis C transmission in people who inject drugsNeedle syringe programmes (NSP) and opioid substitution therapy (OST) are the primary interventions to reduce hepatitis C (HCV) transmission in people who inject drugs. There is good evidence for the effectiveness of NSP and OST in reducing injecting risk behavi...

Hepatitis C virus vaccines among people who inject drugs.

Most people who inject drugs (PWID) are infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV), and PWID have the highest risk of HCV infection of any risk group. The incidence of HCV infection is 5%-25% per year, demonstrating continued need for HCV infection prevention in PWID. Existing data in chimpanzees and PWID suggest that protective immunity against persistent HCV infection is achievable. Due to the hig...

Acceptability of Rapid Point-of-Care Hepatitis C Tests Among People Who Inject Drugs and Utilize Syringe-Exchange Programs.

People who inject drugs may benefit from point-of-care hepatitis C virus (HCV) testing offered at syringe exchanges. We sought to understand whether this population would be willing to undergo rapid HCV testing. We found that there was broad support for rapid HCV testing, especially among younger people who inject drugs with high perceived risk.