Injection drug users and the provision of hepatitis C-related services in a nationwide sample of drug treatment programs.
Drug treatment facilities are important sites for providing targeted prevention and health services to injection drug users (IDUs) who are infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV). A nationwide survey was conducted to examine whether differences exist in the HCV-related services provided by drug treatment programs that have varying proportions of IDUs among their patients. The results indicate that, overall, drug treatment programs with a greater proportion of IDUs offer significantly more HCV services as compared to programs with a smaller proportion of IDUs. However, important components of hepatitis C-related care, such as universal basic education and counseling about HCV and extensive HCV-antibody testing, are not yet being provided by all programs with a large proportion of IDUs among their patient populations.
Vassilev
Zdravko P
ZP
National Development and Research Institutes Inc, 71 W 23 St. 8th floor, New York, NY 10010, USA. zvassilev@njpies.org
Strauss
Shiela M
SM
Astone
Janetta
J
Des Jarlais
Don C
DC
D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D011314:Preventive Health Services / Q000600:supply & distribution; D016320:Substance Abuse Treatment Centers / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015819:Substance Abuse, Intravenous / Q000534:rehabilitation* / Q000821:virology; D014481:United States