ArticleEpidemiology and infection2017
The effects of needle-sharing and opioid substitution therapy on incidence of hepatitis C virus infection and reinfection in people who inject drugs.
Article in Epidemiology and infection, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- Incidence of HIV and hepatitis C virus among people who inject drugs, and associations with age and sex or gender: a global systematic review and meta-analysis.The lancet. Gastroenterology & hepatology · 2023Pooled it
- Needle and syringe programmes and opioid substitution therapy for preventing HCV transmission among people who inject drugs: findings from a Cochrane Review and meta-analysis.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2018Pooled it
- The association between drug injection duration and hepatitis C prevalence among people who inject drugs in Iran.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Achieving Hepatitis C Micro-Elimination in Chinese Injecting Drug Users: A Dynamic Network Modeling Study.Infectious diseases and therapy · 2025Article
- Time-to-hepatitis C treatment initiation among people who inject drugs in Melbourne, Australia.Epidemiology and infection · 2023Article
- Identifying barriers and facilitators for implementing harm reduction strategies for methamphetamine use into hospital settings.Frontiers in health services · 2023Article
- Health service utilisation and access for people who inject drugs during COVID-19.Drug and alcohol review · 2022Review
- Outcomes of Hepatitis C Virus Treatment in the New York City Jail Population: Successes and Challenges Facing Scale up of Care.Open forum infectious diseases · 2020Article
- Risk of Hepatitis E among Persons Who Inject Drugs in Hong Kong: A Qualitative and Quantitative Serological Analysis.Microorganisms · 2020Article
- The Elimination of Hepatitis C as a Public Health Threat.Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in medicine · 2020Review
- Article
- Innovative strategies for the elimination of viral hepatitis at a national level: A country case series.Liver international : official journal of the International Association for the Study of the Liver · 2019Review
- Article
- The role of specialized hospital units in infection and mortality risk reduction among patients with hematological cancers.PloS one · 2019Article
- Understanding and addressing hepatitis C reinfection in the oral direct-acting antiviral era.Journal of viral hepatitis · 2018Review
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Although high hepatitis C virus (HCV) prevalence has been observed in people who inject drugs (PWID) for decades, research suggests incidence is falling. We examined whether PWIDs' use of opioid substitution therapy (OST) and their needle-and-syringe sharing behaviour explained HCV incidence. We assessed HCV incidence in 235 PWID in Melbourne, Australia, and performed discrete-time survival with needle-sharing and OST status as independent variables. HCV infection, reinfection and combined infection/reinfection incidences were 7·6 [95% confidence interval (CI) 4·8-11·9], 12·4 (95% CI 9·1-17·0) and 9·7 (95% CI 7·4-12·6) per 100 person-years, respectively. Needle-sharing was significantly associated with higher incidence of naive HCV infection [hazard ratio (HR) 4·9, 95% CI 1·3-17·7] but not reinfection (HR 1·85, 95% CI 0·79-4·32); however, a cross-model test suggested this difference was sample specific. Past month use of OST had non-significant protective effects against naive HCV infection and reinfection. Our data confirm previous evidence of greatly reduced HCV incidence in PWID, but not the significant protective effect of OST on HCV incidence detected in recent studies. Our findings reinforce the need for greater access to HCV testing and prevention services to accelerate the decline in incidence, and HCV treatment, management and support to limit reinfection.
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