Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy
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Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy · Jun 2020
Observational StudyUptake and predictors of direct-acting antiviral treatment for hepatitis C among people receiving opioid agonist therapy in Sweden and Norway: a drug utilization study from 2014 to 2017.
Treatment with direct-acting antiviral agents (DAAs) offers an opportunity to eliminate hepatitis C virus (HCV) endemic among people who inject drugs (PWID) and people enrolled in opioid agonist therapy (OAT) programs. The objective of this study was to estimate and to compare HCV treatment uptake after the introduction of DAAs among patients receiving OAT in Sweden and Norway. We also aimed to evaluate predictors of DAAs treatment among OAT patients in both countries. ⋯ An increase in DAA treatment and HCV treatment uptake was observed among Swedish and Norwegian OAT patients whilst introducing new direct-acting antiviral treatment regimens. However, more than two thirds of the OAT population in Norway and Sweden were untreated at the beginning of 2018. A further scale-up is crucial in order to control and eliminate the HCV endemic among OAT patients.