{"doi":"10.1016/j.ijid.2024.107215","title":"Widespread hepatitis C virus transmission network among people who inject drugs in Kenya","abstract":"OBJECTIVES: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) disproportionately affects people who inject drugs (PWID) worldwide. Despite carrying a high HCV burden, little is known about transmission dynamics in low- and middle-income countries. METHODS: We recruited PWID from Nairobi and coastal cities and towns of Mombasa, Kilifi, and Malindi in Kenya at needle and syringe programs. Next-generation sequencing data from HCV hypervariable region 1 were analyzed using Global Hepatitis Outbreak and Surveillance Technology to identify transmission clusters. RESULTS: HCV strains belonged to genotype 1a (n = 64, 46.0%), 4a (n = 72, 51.8%) and mixed HCV/1a/4a (n = 3, 2.2%). HCV/1a was dominant (61.2%) in Nairobi, whereas HCV/4a was dominant in Malindi (85.7%) and Kilifi (60.9%), and both genotypes were evenly identified in Mombasa (45.3% for HCV/1a and 50.9% for HCV/4a). Global Hepatitis Outbreak and Surveillance Technology identified 11 transmission clusters involving 90 cases. Strains in the two largest clusters (n = 38 predominantly HCV/4a and n = 32 HCV/1a) were sampled from all four sites. CONCLUSIONS: Transmission clusters involving 64.7% of cases indicate an effective sampling of major HCV strains circulating among PWID. Large clusters involving 77.8% of clustered strains from Nairobi and Coast suggest successful introduction of two ancestral HCV/1a and HCV/4a strains to PWID and the existence of a widespread transmission network in the country. The disruption of this network is essential for HCV elimination.","journal":"International Journal of Infectious Diseases","year":2024,"id":468952,"datarank":0.24141568686511508,"base_score":1.6094379124341003,"endowment":1.6094379124341003,"self_citation_contribution":0.24141568686511508,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.24141568686511508,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":4,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9173,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2024-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":440699,"name":"Yury Khudyakov","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":934054,"name":"Sumathi Ramachandran","orcid":"0000-0001-6359-5003","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":715722,"name":"Lindsey Riback","orcid":"0000-0001-8805-270X","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1144157,"name":"Maxwell Ackerman","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":716306,"name":"Mercy Nyakowa","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1302395,"name":"Leonard Arthur","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":715721,"name":"John Lizcano","orcid":"0000-0003-4470-2189","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":467453,"name":"Josephine G. Walker","orcid":"0000-0002-9732-5738","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":715724,"name":"Peter Cherutich","orcid":"0000-0002-0019-0372","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":330586,"name":"Ann Kurth","orcid":"0000-0003-2300-6723","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":337727,"name":"Matthew J. Akiyama","orcid":"0000-0003-4290-3083","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":30,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:05:23.500722Z","pmid":"39182826","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}