Monday, October 3, 2016

International data shows injecting drug use (IDU) is a major contributor to the global burden of HCV, HBV and HIV

Oct 3, 2016

Estimating the burden of disease attributable to injecting drug use as a risk factor for HIV, hepatitis C, and hepatitis B: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013

A new analysis of international data shows injecting drug use (IDU) is a major contributor to the global burden of HCV, HBV and HIV.

Previous estimates of the burden of these diseases among people who inject drugs have not included estimates of the burden attributable to the consequences of past injecting. Therefore, a team of researchers from Australia, the UK and the USA used the Global Burden of Disease Study and United Nations data to study this risk factor.

They estimated 10million disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) were attributable to previous exposure to HIV, HBV, and HCV via IDU, a four-times increase since 1990.

In total, in 2013, IDU was estimated to cause 4% of DALYs due to HIV, 1.1% of DALYs due to HBV, and 39.1% of DALYs due to HCV. The IDU-attributable HIV burden was highest in low-to-middle-income countries, and the IDU-attributable HCV burden was highest in high-income countries.

The researchers suggest that effective interventions to prevent and treat these important causes of health burden need to be scaled up.


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