{"doi":"10.1093/cid/ciae372","title":"Illicit Fentanyl Use and Hepatitis C Virus Seroconversion Among People Who Inject Drugs in Tijuana and San Diego: Results From a Binational Cohort Study","abstract":"BACKGROUND: Illicitly manufactured fentanyl (IMF) increases overdose mortality, but its role in infectious disease transmission is unknown. We examined whether IMF use predicts hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) incidence among a cohort of people who inject drugs (PWID) in San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico. METHODS: PWID were recruited during 2020-2022, undergoing semi-annual interviewer-administered surveys and HIV and HCV serological rapid tests through 2024. Cox regression was conducted to examine predictors of seroconversion considering self-reported IMF use as a 6-month lagged, time-dependent covariate. RESULTS: Of 398 PWID at baseline, 67% resided in San Diego, 70% were male, median age was 43 years, 42% reported receptive needle sharing, and 25% reported using IMF. HCV incidence was 14.26 per 100 person-years (95% confidence interval [CI]: 11.49-17.02), and HIV incidence was 1.29 (95% CI: .49-2.10). IMF was associated with HCV seroconversion, with a univariable hazard ratio (HR) of 1.64 (95% CI: 1.09-2.40), and multivariable HR of 1.57 (95% CI: 1.03-2.40). The direction of the relationship with HIV was similar, albeit not significant (HR 2.39; 95% CI: .66-8.64). CONCLUSIONS: We document a novel association between IMF and HCV seroconversion among PWID in Tijuana-San Diego. Few HIV seroconversions (n = 10) precluded our ability to assess if a similar relationship held for HIV. IMF's short half-life may destabilize PWID-increasing the need for repeat dosing and sharing smoking materials and syringes. New preventive care approaches may reduce HCV transmission in the fentanyl era.","journal":"Clinical Infectious Diseases","year":2024,"id":437060,"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":11,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.8977,"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":666151,"name":"Daniela Abramovitz","orcid":"0000-0002-2969-7193","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":383131,"name":"Britt Skaathun","orcid":"0000-0001-8780-3612","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":409490,"name":"Gudelia Rangel","orcid":"0000-0003-3376-152X","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":516177,"name":"Alicia Vera","orcid":"0000-0002-8708-8169","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":667125,"name":"Carlos F. Vera","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":666152,"name":"Irina Artamónova","orcid":"0000-0003-4584-4832","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":908764,"name":"Sheryl Muñoz","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":409491,"name":"Natasha K. Martin","orcid":"0000-0001-8344-1810","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1186499,"name":"William H. Eger","orcid":"0000-0002-4775-7313","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":666256,"name":"Katie Bailey","orcid":"0000-0002-4794-117X","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1246508,"name":"Bo-Shan Go","orcid":null,"position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":795041,"name":"Philippe Bourgois","orcid":"0000-0002-1600-233X","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":384138,"name":"Steffanie A Strathdee","orcid":null,"position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":263757,"name":"Joseph Friedman","orcid":"0000-0002-5225-3267","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":46,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:00:29.872940Z","pmid":"39078273","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":[]}