A descriptive study of hepatitis C in people who inject drugs
Prakrithi Shivaprakash, Vinit Patel, Darshan Shadakshari, Rahul Verma, Lekhansh Shukla, Jayant Mahadevan, Arun Kandasamy, Prabhat Kumar Chand, Vivek Benegal, Lakshmanan Sethuraman, Priyamvada Sharma, Pratima Murthy- General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
- General Medicine
Background & objectives:
The seroprevalence of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) in general population is higher than that of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in India. People who inject drugs (PWIDs) constitute a high-risk group for all blood-borne infections. Multiple behavioural surveillance surveys have provided a rich typology of HIV-infected PWIDs, but this information is missing for HCV infection. We describe awareness, transmission risk factors and the treatment continuum for HCV infection among PWID. We also report spatial clustering of HCV infection in PWIDs residing in Bengaluru.
Methods:
Information from clinical records was collected and telephonic interviews of retrospectively identified PWIDs who received treatment at a tertiary-level addiction treatment facility between 2016 and 2021 were conducted.
Results:
We identified 391 PWIDs; 220 (56.26%) received an anti-HCV antibody test (4th Generation HCV-Tridot). Individuals reporting unsafe injection practices were more often tested than those who did not (
Interpretation & conclusions:
Undetected HCV infection is common in PWIDs; awareness and treatment uptake is poor in this group. Spatial clustering of infections in a district shows transmission in close networks and provides opportunities for targeted interventions.