Gibbs Daisy, Grebely Jason, Sutherland Rachel, Larney Sarah, Butler Kerryn, Dietze Paul M, Starr Mitchell, Peacock Amy
National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
The Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
Drug Alcohol Rev. 2021 Nov;40(7):1349-1353. doi: 10.1111/dar.13282. Epub 2021 Mar 23.
Awareness of hepatitis C virus (HCV) status among people who inject drugs is critical to ensure linkage to care and reduce transmission risk. Testing pathways, confusion about results and possible reinfection raise potential for discordance between perceived and actual HCV status among people who inject drugs. We evaluated self-reported and serologically confirmed HCV status concordance among a sample of Australian people who inject drugs.
Data were collected in May-June 2018 from participants in Canberra and Sydney, Australia, who had injected drugs at least monthly in the past 6 months. Participants completed a structured interview assessing self-reported HCV status and provided a dried blood spot sample for HCV RNA testing.
Of 103 participants, 95% self-reported ever receiving antibody testing, 58% of whom reported having received RNA testing. Seventy-three percent of participants reported never having been told that they had HCV, 18% reported current infection and 9% did not know their current status. According to dried blood spot RNA testing, 20% were currently infected. Over a quarter of the sample (28%, n = 29) did not accurately report their HCV status, half of whom were unaware of a current infection.
With over one-quarter of the sample in our study not accurately reporting their current HCV status, our findings reinforce the importance of regular testing for active infection, and the need for improved health literacy on HCV antibody and RNA test results, HCV status post-treatment and reinfection risk.
了解注射吸毒者的丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）感染状况对于确保其获得治疗并降低传播风险至关重要。检测途径、对检测结果的困惑以及可能的再次感染增加了注射吸毒者自认为的HCV感染状况与实际感染状况不一致的可能性。我们评估了澳大利亚注射吸毒者样本中自我报告的HCV感染状况与血清学确诊状况的一致性。
2018年5月至6月收集了来自澳大利亚堪培拉和悉尼的参与者的数据，这些参与者在过去6个月中至少每月注射一次毒品。参与者完成了一项结构化访谈，评估自我报告的HCV感染状况，并提供干血斑样本进行HCV RNA检测。
在103名参与者中，95%的人自我报告曾接受过抗体检测，其中58%的人报告接受过RNA检测。73%的参与者报告从未被告知自己感染了HCV，18%的人报告当前感染，9%的人不知道自己当前的感染状况。根据干血斑RNA检测，20%的人当前感染。超过四分之一的样本（28%，n = 29）没有准确报告其HCV感染状况，其中一半不知道自己当前感染。
我们研究中超过四分之一的样本没有准确报告其当前的HCV感染状况，我们的研究结果强化了定期检测活动性感染的重要性，以及提高对HCV抗体和RNA检测结果、治疗后HCV感染状况及再次感染风险的健康素养的必要性。
