Van Baelen L, Antoine J, De Ridder K, Muyldermans G, Gremeaux L
Department of Public Health and Surveillance, Sciensano, Brussels, Belgium.
Acta Gastroenterol Belg. 2019 Jan-Mar;82(1):35-42.
Hepatitis C prevalence figures for people who use drugs in Belgium are scarce, and particularly for people who inject drugs. The current study refines the existing HCV estimates by focussing on diagnostic HCV testing practices for this population at risk.
The analysis is the result of a descriptive crosssectional study, based on data extracted from the linkage between a database of people in treatment for substance use disorders in Belgium and a database of the Belgian health insurance companies. By using national nomenclature codes for HCV tests, the number of people in treatment for substance use disorders who were tested on HCV, were estimated.
18,880 out of 30,905 patients (61.1%) in treatment for substance use disorders between 2011 and 2014 have been screened at least once for HCV between 2008 and 2015. 58.0% of those who had never injected and 59.1% of those with an unknown injecting status were tested for HCV, compared to 86.5% of the patients who had recently injected and 84.5% of those who had ever injected. 36.8% of the people who had recently injected were tested for HCV RNA.
This study supports the need of a continued effort of health care providers to identify people infected with HCV. For a population at risk such as people who use drugs, regular screening is needed to reach the goal set by WHO of near viral elimination of HCV by 2030.
比利时吸毒人群中丙型肝炎的流行数据稀缺，尤其是注射吸毒者。本研究通过关注这一高危人群的丙型肝炎诊断检测实践，完善了现有的丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）估计数据。
该分析是一项描述性横断面研究的结果，基于从比利时物质使用障碍治疗人群数据库与比利时健康保险公司数据库之间的关联中提取的数据。通过使用HCV检测的国家命名代码，估计了接受物质使用障碍治疗且接受过HCV检测的人数。
2011年至2014年期间接受物质使用障碍治疗的30905名患者中，有18880名（61.1%）在2008年至2015年期间至少接受过一次HCV筛查。从未注射过毒品的人群中，58.0%接受了HCV检测；注射状态不明的人群中，59.1%接受了检测；而近期有过注射行为的患者中，86.5%接受了检测，曾经有过注射行为的患者中，84.5%接受了检测。近期有过注射行为的人群中，36.8%接受了HCV RNA检测。
本研究支持医疗保健提供者持续努力识别HCV感染者的必要性。对于吸毒等高危人群，需要进行定期筛查，以实现世界卫生组织（WHO）设定的到2030年近乎消除HCV病毒的目标。
