For injection drug users with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, providing treatment opportunities within a local needle exchange program can provide care to more patients and eventually cure more patients, a new study suggests.
The study's findings help "counteract the implicit belief within the medical community that people who inject drugs can't or don't want to engage in healthcare," lead author Benjamin Eckhardt, MD, with NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City, told Medscape Medical News.
"By simply focusing on patient accompaniment, limiting stigma, and removing the punitive response for missed appointments, we can effectively engage people who inject drugs in healthcare and more specifically cure their infection, making significant inroads to HCV elimination," Eckhardt said.
The study was published online March 14 in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Nonjudgmental, Patient-Centered Approach
Researchers included 165 injection drug users with HCV (mean age, 42 years; 78% men); 82 were randomly allocated to the accessible care intervention, and 83 to a usual care control group.
The accessible care model provides HCV treatment within a community-based needle exchange program in a comfortable, nonjudgmental atmosphere, "without fear of shame or stigma that people who inject drugs often experience in mainstream institutions," the investigators explain.
Control participants were connected to a patient navigator who facilitated referrals to community direct antigen antiviral therapy programs that were not at a syringe service program.
