Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Sep 1:1:8.
doi: 10.1186/s41124-016-0016-6. eCollection 2016.

Concordance between self-reported and measured HIV and hepatitis C virus infection status among people who inject drugs in Germany

Stine Nielsen  1   2 , Martyna Gassowski  1 , Benjamin Wenz  1 , Norbert Bannert  3 , Claus-Thomas Bock  4 , Claudia Kücherer  3 , R Stefan Ross  5 , Viviane Bremer  1 , Ulrich Marcus  1 , Ruth Zimmermann  1 ; DRUCK study group
Collaborators, Affiliations

Concordance between self-reported and measured HIV and hepatitis C virus infection status among people who inject drugs in Germany

Stine Nielsen et al. Hepatol Med Policy. .

Abstract

Background: People who inject drugs (PWID) are disproportionately affected by both HIV and hepatitis C infection (HCV). Awareness of infection status is essential to ensure linkage to appropriate healthcare for those infected, who need treatment and regular follow-up, as well as for uninfected individuals, who need access to targeted testing and counselling services. In this paper we compare self-reported HIV and HCV status with serological markers of infection among PWID recruited through respondent driven sampling.

Methods: From 2011 through 2014, biological and behavioural data was collected from 2,077 PWID in Germany. Dried blood spots from capillary blood samples were collected and screened for HCV antibodies, HCV RNA and HIV-1/-2 antibodies. HIV reactive samples were confirmed by Western blot.

Results: Laboratory testing revealed that 5 % were infected with HIV and 81 % were aware of being infected. Chronic HCV infection was detected in 41 % of the participants, 2 % had an acute HCV infection, 22 % had a cleared infection, and 34 % were unexposed to HCV. The concordance between self-reported and measured HCV status was lower than for HIV, with 73 % of those with chronic HCV infection being aware of their infection.

Conclusions: We found a relatively high awareness of HIV and HCV infection status among PWID. Nevertheless, access to appropriate testing, counselling and care services targeted to the needs of PWID should be further improved, particularly concerning HCV.

Trial registration: Ethical approval was received from the ethics committee at the medical university of Charité, Berlin, Germany in May 2011 and with an amendment approved retrospectively on 19/11/2012 (No EA4/036/11). The German Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information approved the study protocol retrospectively on 29/11/2012 (III-401/008#0035).

Keywords: Germany; HIV; Hepatitis C; Knowledge; People who inject drugs; Respondent driven sampling; Self-report; Testing; Undiagnosed; Validity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

All authors declare that they have no competing interest.

References

    1. European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) Drug-related infectious diseases in Europe: update from the EMCDDA expert network. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union; 2015.
    1. Platt L, Jolley E, Hope V, Latypov A, Vickerman P, Hickson F, Reynolds L, Rhodes T. HIV Epidemics in the European Region: Vulnerability and Response. Washington: Directions in Development--Human Development; 2015.
    1. Hope VD, Eramova I, Capurro D, Donoghoe MC. Prevalence and estimation of hepatitis B and C infections in the WHO European Region: a review of data focusing on the countries outside the European Union and the European Free Trade Association. Epidemiol Infect. 2014;142:270–286. doi: 10.1017/S0950268813000940. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wiessing L, Ferri M, Grady B, Kantzanou M, Sperle I, Cullen KJ, group ED. Hatzakis A, Prins M, Vickerman P, et al. Hepatitis C virus infection epidemiology among people who inject drugs in Europe: a systematic review of data for scaling up treatment and prevention. PLoS One. 2014;9:e103345. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0103345. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Public Health England (PHE) Data tables of the Unlinked Anonymous Monitoring Survey of HIV and Hepatitis in People Who Inject Drugs. London: Public Health England; 2015.

LinkOut - more resources