HCV Re-infection in People with High-risk Behavior Low

AGA Reading Room 

11.15.2018 

HCV Re-infection in People with High-risk Behavior Low

Widespread treatment should be offered to people who inject drugs

by Pippa Wysong

Contributing Writer, MedPage Today 

The overall number of people re-infected with hepatitis C (HCV) after successful treatment with direct-acting agents (DAAs) was small in a large population-based study from Canada, providing more evidence to offer widespread treatment to high-risk populations.

But the key to eliminating HCV is to get treatment to HCV-infected people who have high-risk behaviors quickly to reduce the number of people living with infection. This in turn would reduce the passing on of the disease to others who have cleared the virus from treatment, said Naveed Janjua, PhD, senior scientist with the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control.

In fact, the study, published in the Journal of Hepatology, found evidence that people who inject drugs (PWID) who continued to use opiate agonist therapy after successful cure with direct-acting antiviral therapies (DAAs) had lower re-infection rates than PWID who had no opiate-agonist therapy or supports.
Read More: https://www.medpagetoday.com/reading-room/aga/lower-gi/76361