LAUSR.org creates dashboard-style pages of related content for over 1.5 million academic articles. Sign Up to like articles & get recommendations!

Integrated supervised consumption services and hepatitis C testing and treatment among people who inject drugs in Toronto, Canada: A cross‐sectional analysis

Photo from wikipedia

Despite the availability of publicly funded hepatitis C (HCV) treatment in Canada, treatment gaps persist, particularly among people who inject drugs. We estimate correlates of HCV care cascade engagement (testing,… Click to show full abstract

Despite the availability of publicly funded hepatitis C (HCV) treatment in Canada, treatment gaps persist, particularly among people who inject drugs. We estimate correlates of HCV care cascade engagement (testing, diagnosis, and treatment) among people who inject drugs in Toronto, Canada and examine the effect of accessing differing supervised consumption service (SCS) models on self‐reported HCV testing and treatment. This is a cross‐sectional baseline analysis of 701 people who inject drugs surveyed in the Toronto, Ontario integrated Supervised Injection Services (OiSIS‐Toronto) study between November 2018 and March 2020. We examine correlates of self‐reported HCV care cascade outcomes including SCS model, demographic, socio‐structural, drug use, and harm reduction characteristics. Overall, 647 participants (92%) reported ever receiving HCV testing, of whom 336 (52%) had been diagnosed with HCV. Among participants who reported ever being diagnosed with HCV, 281 (84%) reported chronic HCV, of whom 130 (46%) reported HCV treatment uptake and 151 (54%) remained untreated. Compared to those with no SCS use, participants who had ever injected at an integrated SCS model with co‐located HCV care had greater prevalence of both ever receiving HCV testing (adjusted prevalence ratio [aPR]: 1.12, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.02–1.24) and ever receiving HCV treatment (aPR: 1.67, 95% CI: 1.04–2.69). Over half of participants diagnosed with chronic HCV reported remaining untreated. Our findings suggest that integrated SCS models with co‐located HCV care represent key strategies for linkage to HCV care, but that more is needed to support scale‐up.

Keywords: among people; inject drugs; hcv; treatment; people inject; hcv care

Journal Title: Journal of Viral Hepatitis
Year Published: 2022

Link to full text (if available)


Share on Social Media:                               Sign Up to like & get
recommendations!

Related content

More Information              News              Social Media              Video              Recommended



                Click one of the above tabs to view related content.