Office of Research, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School-Baystate, Springfield, MA 01199, USA.
Section of Infectious Diseases, Dartmouth Health, Lebanon, NH 03756, USA.
Viruses. 2024 Aug 30;16(9):1388. doi: 10.3390/v16091388.
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) disproportionately affects people who inject drugs (PWID). Although HCV has become universally curable since the arrival of direct-acting antivirals, barriers exist to facilitating care and cure in this historically hard-to-reach population, including limited testing and healthcare services and healthcare stigma, issues that are compounded in rural areas. Telehealth is effective in increasing access to HCV care and cure, but innovative approaches of testing and care are required to fully address the need among rural PWID, which led to our study examining a mobile telehealth model for treating HCV. In this commentary, we discuss lessons learned delivering telehealth on a mobile unit, important factors for consideration when designing a mobile intervention, and we suggest an ideal model to increase access to HCV testing and treatment and other services for rural PWID.
丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）在注射毒品者（PWID）中比例过高。虽然直接作用抗病毒药物的出现使 HCV 成为一种普遍可治愈的疾病，但在这个历史上难以接触到的人群中，仍然存在促进护理和治愈的障碍，包括有限的检测和医疗保健服务以及医疗保健污名化等问题，这些问题在农村地区更为严重。远程医疗在增加 HCV 护理和治愈的可及性方面非常有效，但需要创新的检测和护理方法来充分满足农村地区 PWID 的需求，这导致了我们研究考察了一种用于治疗 HCV 的移动远程医疗模式。在这篇评论中，我们讨论了在移动单元上提供远程医疗服务的经验教训、设计移动干预措施时需要考虑的重要因素，并提出了一个理想的模型，以增加农村地区 PWID 对 HCV 检测和治疗以及其他服务的可及性。
