Hepatitis C reinfection in former and active injecting drug users in Belgium

Abstract Background There is currently no systematic screening for hepatitis C (HCV) reinfection in people who inject drugs (PWID) after treatment in Belgium. However, in a recent meta-analysis, the overall HCV reinfection rate was 5.9/100 person-years (PY) among PWID. Accordingly, this study was undertaken to investigate the reinfection rate in former and active PWID who achieved the end of treatment response after direct-acting antiviral (DAA) treatment in Belgium. Methods This observational cross-sectional study recruited individuals with a history of injecting drug use who had achieved the... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Dana Busschots
Rob Bielen
Özgür M. Koc
Leen Heyens
Rita Verrando
Chantal de Galocsy
Christophe Van Steenkiste
Frederik Nevens
Håvard Midgard
Olav Dalgard
Geert Robaeys
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2021
Reihe/Periodikum: Harm Reduction Journal, Vol 18, Iss 1, Pp 1-7 (2021)
Verlag/Hrsg.: BMC
Schlagwörter: Reinfection / Hepatitis C virus / People who inject drugs / Direct-acting antivirals / Public aspects of medicine / RA1-1270
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-26613325
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : https://doi.org/10.1186/s12954-021-00552-x

Abstract Background There is currently no systematic screening for hepatitis C (HCV) reinfection in people who inject drugs (PWID) after treatment in Belgium. However, in a recent meta-analysis, the overall HCV reinfection rate was 5.9/100 person-years (PY) among PWID. Accordingly, this study was undertaken to investigate the reinfection rate in former and active PWID who achieved the end of treatment response after direct-acting antiviral (DAA) treatment in Belgium. Methods This observational cross-sectional study recruited individuals with a history of injecting drug use who had achieved the end of treatment response to any DAA treatment between 2015 and 2020. Participants were offered a post-treatment HCV RNA test. Results Eighty-five potential participants were eligible to participate and contacted, of whom 60 participants were enrolled in the study with a median age of 51.0 (IQR 44.3–56.0) years; it was reported that 23.3% continued to inject drugs intravenously after DAA treatment. Liver cirrhosis was present in 12.9%. The majority had genotype 1a (51.7%) or genotype 3 (15.0%) infection. We detected no reinfections in this study population. The total time patients were followed up for reinfection in the study was 78.5 PY (median 1.0 years IQR 0.4–2.0). Conclusion Reinfection after successful treatment with DAA initially appears to be very low in Belgian PWID. Therefore, efforts should be made to screen individuals with persistent risk behaviors for reinfection systematically. In addition, a national HCV registry should be established to accurately define the burden of HCV infection and reinfection in Belgium and support the elimination of viral hepatitis C in Europe. Trial registration clinicaltrials.gov NCT04251572, Registered 5 Feb 2020–Retrospectively registered, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04251572 .