Co-managing HIV, Hepatitis C, and Opioid Abuse
Naveed Saleh, MD, MS
January 23, 2018
Infection and Opioids
Effective antiretroviral treatments for HIV and hepatitis C exist and are widely available. In fact, treatment for hepatitis C is curative, which hardly seemed imaginable only a few short years ago. But despite there being effective treatments for these diseases, barriers exist that make their treatment difficult. Chief among these barriers is intravenous use of opioids.
The stark reality is that people with hepatitis C or HIV, or both diseases, are much more likely to die of drug overdose than of chronic illness itself. Furthermore, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2014 death from drug overdose was more common than death caused by motor vehicle accidents or firearms. Of note, 80% of people who inject drugs and are HIV-positive also have hepatitis C.
At IDWeek 2017, managing infectious disease in opioid users was an important topic of coverage. In a lecture titled "Co-management of Opioid Treatment, HIV, and Hepatitis C Treatment," Brianna Norton, DO, MPH, an assistant professor of infectious disease and internal medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, discussed evidence-based approaches to treating opioid use disorder in patients with HIV and hepatitis C.
Continue reading: https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/891282?src=rsshttp://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/891282?src=rss
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