Progress and challenges in the elimination of hepatitis C among people who inject drugs in Germany: results of a pilot study for a national monitoring system, 10 years after the first data collection

Steffen, Gyde; Krings, Amrei; Guttmann, Sarah; Lübke, Nadine; Meyer-Schlinkmann, Kristin; Tiemann, Carsten; Timm, Jörg; Walker, Andreas; Zimmermann, Ruth

doi:10.1186/s12954-024-01119-2

Harm Reduction Journal

Table 2 Anti-HCV positivity and hepatits C viraemia, stratified by participant characteristics, DRUCK 2.0 study (2021–2022, overall sample includes 588 participants)

From: Progress and challenges in the elimination of hepatitis C among people who inject drugs in Germany: results of a pilot study for a national monitoring system, 10 years after the first data collection

	Anti-HCV positivity (HCV RNA positive or negative)			Viraemic HCV infection (HCV RNA positive, anti-HCV positive or negative
Variable	n/N	%	95%-confidence interval (CI)^#	n/N	%	95%-confidence interval (CI)^#
City of recruitment
Augsburg	62/81	77	66.1–84.5	24/81	30	20.7–44.4
Berlin	109/143	76	68.6–82.5	40/143	28	21.2–35.9
Ingolstadt	3/4	75	23.7–96.7	1/4	25	3.3–76.3
Munich	77/105	73	64.1–80.9	16/105	15	9.5–23.5
Nuremberg	62/78	79	69.1–87.1	25/78	32	22.7–43.2
Regensburg	117/174	67	59.9–73.8	54/174	31	24.6–38.3
Wurzburg	2/3	67	15.3–95.7	0/3	0	0
Setting of recruitment
Contact cafés/ outreach services	291/404	72	67.4–76.2	110/404	27	23.1–31.8
Drug consumption centres	89/112	79	71.0–86.0	35/112	31	23.4-40.4
Drug counselling centres	15/21	71	49.2–86.6	7/21	33	16.8–55.4
OAT practices	37/51	73	58.8–83.0	8/51	16	8.0–28.4
Age group*
< 25 years	9/31	29	15.8–47.1	6/31	19	9.0–37.0
25–39 years	186/278	67	61.2–72.2	77/278	28	22.8–33.3
40 years and older	237/279	85	80.2–88.7	77/279	28	22.7–33.2
Gender*
Men	293/399	73	68.9–77.5	125/399	31	27.0–36.1
Women	135/184	73	66.5–79.3	35/184	19	14.0–25.4
Diverse	4/4	100	100	0/4	0	0
Country of birth*
Germany	327/458	71	67.1–75.4	109/458	24	20.1–27.9
Abroad	105/130	81	73.1–86.7	51/130	39	31.2–47.9
UN-birth region, if born abroad*
Northern Europe	4/4	100	100	3/4	75	23.4–96.7
Western Europe	5/6	83	36.4–97.8	1/6	17	2.2–63.6
Eastern Europe	44/52	85	72.0–92.2	23/52	44	31.3–58.0
Southern Europe	14/17	82	57.0–94.3	2/17	12	2.9–37.2
outside Europe	33/45	73	58.5–84.3	17/45	38	24.8–52.7
Years with residence in Germany, if born abroad*
Less than 5 years	7/7	100	100	4/7	57	22.7–85.8
5–9 years	18/20	90	67.3–97.5	9/20	45	25.2–66.6
10 years or more	76/97	78	69.0–85.5	34/97	35	26.2–45.1
History of homelessness*
Yes	328/428	77	72.4–80.4	129/428	30	26.0–34.7
No	90/141	64	55.6–71.4	24/141	17	11.7–24.2
Currently	110/139	79	71.6–85.1	60/139	43	*35.2–51.5*
Not currently/ never	290/408	71	66.5–75.3	90/408	22	*18.3–26.4*
History of imprisonment*
Yes	358/444	81	76.7–84.1	137/444	31	26.7–35.2
No	64/133	48	39.8–56.6	18/133	14	8.7–20.5
Within last 12 months	122/146	84	*76.6–88.7*	65/146	45	36.7–52.7
Not within last 12 months/ never	297/427	70	*65.0–73.7*	89/427	21	17.2–25.0
Injection drug use during last imprisonment*
Yes	96/105	91	67.4–93.4	31/105	30	17.6–49.1
No	253/329	77	75.3–89.2	103/329	31	39.2–57.5
Injection drug use within the last 30 days*
Yes	364/487	75	70.7–78.4	143/487	29	25.5–33.6
No	63/93	68	57.6–76.5	14/93	15	9.1–23.9
Drug used most often within the last 30 days: Opioid*
Yes	272/376	72	67.6–76.6	110/376	29	24.9–34.1
No	122/160	76	69.0–82.2	37/160	23	17.2–30.3
Drug used most often within the last 30 days: Cocaine*
Yes	64/76	84	74.2–90.8	19/76	25	16.5–35.9
No	329/459	72	67.4–75.6	127/459	28	23.7–32.0
Drug used most often within the last 30 days: Methamphetamine*
Yes	33/44	75	60.2–85.6	14/44	32	19.8–46.9
No	360/491	73	69.2–77.0	132/491	27	23.1–31.0
History of overdose with unconsciousness*
Yes	307/390	79	74.4–82.5	117/390	30	25.7–34.8
No	110/177	62	54.8–69.0	37/177	21	15.5–27.5
Within last 30 days^§	43/48	90	*77.3–95.6*	16/48	33	21.5–47.7
Not within last 30 days/ never^§	308/421	73	*68.7–77.2*	122/421	29	24.8–33.5
Years since first drug injection*
Less than 2 years	11/32	34	20.1–52.1	4/32	13	4.7–29.0
2–4 years	22/42	52	37.5–66.9	14/42	33	20.8–48.7
5 years or more	385/497	77	73.6–80.9	136/497	27	23.6–31.5
History of shared needles/ syringes*
Yes	261/320	82	76.9–85.5	89/320	28	23.2–33.0
No	153/242	63	57.0–69.1	60/242	25	19.8–30.6
Within last 30 days ^§	50/66	76%	64.0–84.6	24/66	36	25.7–48.6
Not within last 30 days/ never ^§	300/403	74	69.9–78.5	111/403	28	23.4–32.1
History of shared spoons, filters, water for drug preparation*
Yes	316/405	78	73.7–81.8	117/405	29	24.7–33.5
No	98/161	61	53.1–68.1	34/161	21	15.5–28.1
Within last 30 days ^§	98/138	71	62.9–78.0	49/138	36	28.0–43.9
Not within last 30 days/ never ^§	253/335	76	70.9–79.8	88/335	26	21.8–31.3
Use of sterile needle for the last injection*^§
Yes	334/444	75	71.0–79.0	131/444	30	25.4–33.9
No	24/35	69	51.6–81.7	10/35	29	16.1–45.5
History of opioid agonist therapy (OAT)*
Yes	373/483	77	73.3–80.8	130/483	27	23.1–31.1
No	48/91	53	42.5–62.8	23/91	25	17.4–35.2
Currently	273/353	77	72.7–81.4	83/353	24	19.4–28.2
Not currently/ never	148/221	67	60.5–72.9	70/221	32	25.9–38.1
History of Hepatitis C testing*
Yes	408/540	76	71.7–79.0	149/540	28	24.0–31.5
No	13/27	48	30.4–66.4	7/27	26	12.9–45.3
Within last 12 months	270/351	77	72.2–81.0	100/351	28	24.0–33.5
Not within in the last 12 months/ never	140/205	68	61.6–74.3	51/205	25	19.4–31.3
HIV infected**
Yes	12/14	86	57.2–96.4	7/14	50	25.9–74.1
No	414/568	73	69.1–76.4	151/568	27	23.0–30.4
HBV cleared/ infected**
Yes	96/105	91	84.3–95.5	37/105	35	26.7–44.8
No	331/476	70	65.2–73.5	123/476	26	22.1–30.0

*self-reported, **assessed from blood analysis, ^§analysis limited to participants with injection drug use during the last 30 days, ^#Results are marked as significant (in bold) when the 95%-CIs of a variable's categories do not overlap

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