Low Hepatitis C Virus Prevalence among Men Who Have Sex with Men Attending Public Health Services in The Netherlands

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) prevalence is high among men who have sex with men (MSM) with HIV in the Netherlands. Large reductions in HCV incidence among MSM with HIV, however, have occurred since treatment with direct-acting antivirals. Over the years, a broader understanding of the HCV epidemic has shown that HCV infections are not solely restricted to MSM with HIV, but they also occur among HIV-negative MSM. Currently, HCV testing among HIV-negative MSM is only provided for PrEP users and is not part of routine sexually transmitted infection (STI) screening among HIV-negative MSM who are no... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Stephanie Popping
Sabine Haspels
Hannelore M. Gotz
W. C. J. P. M. van der Meijden
Mark van den Elshout
Bart J. Rijnders
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2023
Reihe/Periodikum: Viruses, Vol 15, Iss 12, p 2317 (2023)
Verlag/Hrsg.: MDPI AG
Schlagwörter: hepatitis C / MSM / hepatitis C elimination / micro-elimination / Microbiology / QR1-502
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-27582247
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : https://doi.org/10.3390/v15122317

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) prevalence is high among men who have sex with men (MSM) with HIV in the Netherlands. Large reductions in HCV incidence among MSM with HIV, however, have occurred since treatment with direct-acting antivirals. Over the years, a broader understanding of the HCV epidemic has shown that HCV infections are not solely restricted to MSM with HIV, but they also occur among HIV-negative MSM. Currently, HCV testing among HIV-negative MSM is only provided for PrEP users and is not part of routine sexually transmitted infection (STI) screening among HIV-negative MSM who are not using PrEP. In this study, we screened 1885 HIV-negative MSM who did not participate in a PrEP program, with over 1966 STI screening visits at four different public health clinic sites. Among the 1885 MSM, only one person had a new HCV infection, resulting in a 0.05% (95% confidence interval 0.0–0.3) incidence. Based on our findings, we can conclude that systematic HCV testing at STI clinics may not yield significant benefits for this particular population.