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High Burden of Fibrosis and Metabolic Cofactors in a Cohort of Predominantly Genotype 3-Infected Injection Drug Users in Southern India
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1. Overall, knowledge on the existence of HCV is very poor. HCV literacy campaigns are urgently needed.
2. Awareness of status is low. Testing needs to be scaled up more.
3. GT3 infection is predominant among drug users we have worked with not just in Chennai but in several parts. In the NE, we see 1/3/4/6 but it appears GT3 is the highest proportion.
4. a 12-week duration of HCV therapy as a DOT model could be considered for HCV treatment as is the standard of care in India for TB.
There are strong advocacy groups for drugs users particularly in the NE where HCV is an established epidemic who have been advocating for HIV treatment and OST (opioid substitution) for drug users. In the regions of India with historical drug use epidemics, it is only now that they are starting to see more HCV related disease as HIV-related survival has greatly improved. They are both focused on getting more access to HCV services. They spearheaded the efforts to improve access to ART. They can start working with the government.
Reported by Jules Levin
EASL 2014 April 9-13 London, UK
SH Mehta,1 SS Solomon,2,3 AK Srikrishnan,3 A McFall,1 K Bose,3 P Nandagopal,3 S Anand,3 MS Kumar,3 DL Thomas,1,2 S Solomon,3 MS Sulkowski2
1Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA; 2Johns Hkins University School of Medicine, MD; 3YR Gaitonde Centre for AIDS Research and Education, India
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