Highlights
- •Availability of DAA medications in and of themselves is not enough to ensure people will come forward for HCV treatment.
- •Understanding the preferred models of HCV care for people who inject drugs can ensure adequate scale up of treatment.
- •Understanding the needs of those who have yet to engage in HCV care will be crucial in continuing the treatment momentum.
Abstract
Background
People who inject drugs are the group at greatest risk of hepatitis C virus (HCV)
infection. The advent of new direct-acting antiviral (DAA) treatment provides opportunities
for increased uptake of therapy.
Methods
We conducted in-depth interviews with thirty HCV positive participants from the SuperMIX
cohort study. Interviews were transcribed, coded, and analysed for emerging themes
and similarities between participants. General descriptions and critical interpretation
of themes were generated and selective quotes extracted verbatim to best illustrate
the critical themes.
Results
Participants described their experiences of living with HCV, their knowledge of HCV
treatment accessibility, and information on the types of support ain themes: Understanding
the need for treatment; Knowledge and framing of treatment access; and Support during
treatment.
Conclusion
The new, highly effective DAAs for the treatment of HCV are heralded as the potential
beginning of HCV elimination, especially in settings where scale up is high. Our data
from active PWID show that the availability of DAA medications in and of themselves
is likely not to be enough to ensure that PWID will come forward for HCV treatment
in sufficient numbers to drive elimination.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: November 28, 2018
Accepted:
October 30,
2018
Received in revised form:
October 29,
2018
Received:
July 17,
2018
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
