{"doi":"10.1093/cid/ciaa571","title":"Progress Towards Elimination of Hepatitis C Infection Among People Who Inject Drugs in Australia: The ETHOS Engage Study","abstract":"BACKGROUND: Evaluating progress towards hepatitis C virus (HCV) elimination is critical. This study estimated prevalence of current HCV infection and HCV treatment uptake among people who inject drugs (PWID) in Australia. METHODS: The Enhancing Treatment of Hepatitis C in Opioid Substitution Settings Engage is an observational study of PWID attending drug treatment clinics and needle and syringe programs (NSPs). Participants completed a questionnaire including self-reported treatment history and underwent point-of-care HCV RNA testing (Xpert HCV Viral Load Fingerstick; Cepheid). RESULTS: Between May 2018 and September 2019, 1443 participants were enrolled (64% injected drugs in the last month, 74% receiving opioid agonist therapy [OAT]). HCV infection status was uninfected (28%), spontaneous clearance (16%), treatment-induced clearance (32%), and current infection (24%). Current HCV was more likely among people who were homeless (adjusted odds ratio, 1.47; 95% confidence interval, 1.00-2.16), incarcerated in the previous year (2.04; 1.38-3.02), and those injecting drugs daily or more (2.26; 1.43-2.42). Among those with previous chronic or current HCV, 66% (n = 520/788) reported HCV treatment. In adjusted analysis, HCV treatment was lower among females (.68; .48-.95), participants who were homeless (.59; .38-.96), and those injecting daily or more (.51; .31-.89). People aged ≥45 years (1.46; 1.06-2.01) and people receiving OAT (2.62; 1.52-4.51) were more likely to report HCV treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Unrestricted direct-acting antiviral therapy access in Australia has yielded high treatment uptake among PWID attending drug treatment and NSPs, with a marked decline in HCV prevalence. To achieve elimination, PWID with greater marginalization may require additional support and tailored strategies to enhance treatment.","journal":"Clinical Infectious Diseases","year":2020,"id":57937,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":75,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.8571,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":302837,"name":"Maryam Alavi","orcid":"0000-0002-4130-1358","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":302838,"name":"D. B. A. Silk","orcid":"0000-0001-6931-8138","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":302839,"name":"Carla Treloar","orcid":"0000-0002-8230-0386","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":302840,"name":"Marianne Martinello","orcid":"0000-0001-9444-0186","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":72059,"name":"Andrew Milat","orcid":"0000-0003-3126-3463","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":302841,"name":"Adrian Dunlop","orcid":"0000-0003-2394-5966","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":303610,"name":"Jo Holden","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":302842,"name":"C. R. Henderson","orcid":"0000-0001-7264-2676","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":302843,"name":"Janaki Amin","orcid":"0000-0003-2161-9366","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":301349,"name":"Phillip Read","orcid":"0000-0001-5422-3777","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":302844,"name":"Philippa Marks","orcid":"0000-0003-0480-1203","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":22455,"name":"Louisa Degenhardt","orcid":"0000-0002-8513-2218","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":302845,"name":"Jeremy Hayllar","orcid":"0000-0003-3065-7591","position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":302846,"name":"David W. Reid","orcid":"0000-0001-9517-8212","position":14,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":303611,"name":"Carla Gorton","orcid":null,"position":15,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":302847,"name":"Thao Minh Lam","orcid":"0000-0002-7240-726X","position":16,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":301350,"name":"Gregory J. Dore","orcid":"0000-0002-4741-2622","position":17,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":301339,"name":"Jason Grebely","orcid":"0000-0002-1833-2017","position":18,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":301348,"name":"Heather Valerio","orcid":"0000-0002-8608-2558","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":54,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T21:06:48.611399Z","pmid":"32421194","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":[]}