Eradicating hepatitis C: Are novel screening strategies for people who inject drugs cost-effective?

to new hepatitis C therapies for people who inject drugs

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...

Strategies for achieving universal access to hepatitis C virus prevention and care for people who inject drugs.

Globally, control of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection among people who inject drugs (PWID) will require targeted strategies to enhance HCV diagnosis, link individuals into HCV care, increase treatment uptake and enhance viral cure, collectively termed the ‘‘HCV cascade of care’’. A major challenge will be to develop and implement programs appropriate for different settings, including lowand mi...

Barriers to receiving hepatitis C treatment for people who inject drugs: Myths and evidence

BACKGROUND Alcohol consumption, current injecting drug use, and pre-existing mental illness have been identified as 3 of the main reasons for excluding patients from treatment for hepatitis C. OBJECTIVES We reviewed the literature to obtain an evidence base for these common exclusion criteria. MATERIALS AND METHODS We reviewed original research and meta-analyses investigating the effects of...

A quasi-markov model for transmission and disease elimination: Hepatitis C among people who inject drugs

Background: The use of mathematic modeling to better understand the spread of Hepatitis C and the impact of interventions can be invaluable for localities, states and countries with a large burden of injection drug use. New York State (NYS) is estimated to be home to a large number of people who inject drugs (PWID), however the burden of hepatitis C among this population and the impact of inter...