{"id":8148,"date":"2007-07-03T22:56:01","date_gmt":"2007-07-03T22:56:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/?p=8148"},"modified":"2013-09-20T15:05:43","modified_gmt":"2013-09-20T15:05:43","slug":"low-rates-of-hcv-treatment-among-eligible-injection-drug-users","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/8148","title":{"rendered":"Low rates of HCV treatment among eligible injection drug users"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Most HCV-positive IDUs do not receive HCV treatment. M Sulkowski and co-workers from Johns Hopkins in the US presented findings from a study to determine the proportion of HIV-positive and HIV-negative IDUs (former and active) in their programme who are eligible for and initiate HCV therapy with pegylated interferon (pegINF) + ribavirin (RBV) in the absence of geographic and financial barriers (treatment was offered free and on-site).<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The study enrolled 332 subjects (172 HIV\/HCV co-infected; 158 HCV mono-infected). HIV-co-infected IDUs were younger (41 to &lt;44 years) and were more likely to be African American (90% to &gt;74%), have a monthly income &gt;$500 (52% to &gt;23%) than those with HCV alone. The investigators reported no difference in the prevalence of mental illness (~ 64%), alcohol use (~ 20%), or interest in receiving HCV treatment (~ 93%).<\/p>\n<p>HIV-co-infected IDUs were more likely to have detectable HCV RNA (20\/172 HIV\/HCV co-infected, 11%; 29\/143 of HCV mono-infected, 20%; p &lt;0.001) and less likely to be eligible for HCV treatment (75\/152 of HIV\/HCV, 49%; 78 \/114 HCV, 68%; p = 0.002). \u00a0Reasons given for ineligibility were:\u00a0 severe depression (HIV\/HCV 12%; HCV 30%); life expectancy &lt;2 years (HIV\/HCV 40%; HCV 30%); hematologic abnormality (HIV\/HCV 49%; HCV 22%); renal insufficiency (HIV\/HCV 10%; HCV 8%). Of the treatment-eligible IDUs, ~ 40% initiated HCV therapy, defined as at least pegINF injection (31\/75 HIV\/HCV, 41%; 27\/80 HCV, 36%).<\/p>\n<p>The investigators concluded: \u0093While ~ 50% of HIV\/HCV-co-infected IDUs were ineligible for HCV treatment, most (~ 80%) of HCV-mono-infected IDUs were treatment-eligible. Despite the removal of financial and geographic barriers, only ~ 40% of treatment-eligible IDUs initiated HCV treatment. Strategies are needed to increase HCV treatment uptake among IDUs.\u0094<\/p>\n<p>Reference:<\/p>\n<p>Sulkowski M, S Mehta S, Moore R et al. Low rates of HCV therapy among treatment-eligible injection drug users with and without HIV Co-infection. 14th CROI, 2007, Los Angeles. Poster abstract 947.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most HCV-positive IDUs do not receive HCV treatment. M Sulkowski and co-workers from Johns Hopkins in the US presented findings from a study to determine the proportion of HIV-positive and HIV-negative IDUs (former and active) in their programme who are &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,24],"tags":[61],"class_list":["post-8148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conference-reports","category-hepatitis-coinfection","tag-croi-2007"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8148\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}