RESEARCH ARTICLE
Antiviral Treatment to Prevent Transmission of Hepatitis C in People Who Inject Drugs
Eric Dieperink*, Astrid Knott
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2016Volume: 3
Issue: Suppl 1: M8
First Page: 130
Last Page: 137
Publisher ID: MEDJ-3-130
DOI: 10.2174/1874220301603010130
Article History:
Received Date: 05/02/2015Revision Received Date: 06/06/2015
Acceptance Date: 07/08/2015
Electronic publication date: 29/07/2016
Collection year: 2016

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode), which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is common among people who inject drugs (PWID) and causes significant morbidity and mortality. Opiate replacement therapy and needle exchange programs have effectively prevented the transmission of the Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) but have been less effective for HCV. Other HCV prevention strategies are needed. Antiviral therapy with all oral direct acting antivirals is currently available and appears to be highly effective even in PWID and offers a possible strategy to further prevention efforts. This paper will review current evidence for treatment as prevention for HCV in PWID.