title: Modeling hepatitis C virus transmission among people who inject drugs: Assumptions, limitations and future challenges.
abstract: The discovery of highly effective hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatments has led to discussion of elimination and intensified interest in models of HCV transmission. In developed settings, HCV disproportionally affects people who inject drugs (PWID), and models are typically used to provide an evidence base for the effectiveness of interventions such as needle and syringe programs, opioid substitution therapy and more recently treating PWID with new generation therapies to achieve specified reductions in prevalence and / or incidence. This manuscript reviews deterministic compartmental S-I, deterministic compartmental S-I-S and network-based transmission models of HCV among PWID. We detail typical assumptions made when modeling injecting risk behavior, virus transmission, treatment and re-infection and how they correspond with available evidence and empirical data.
authors: a Centre for Population Health; Burnet Institute; Melbourne , VIC Australia.|b Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine ; Monash University ; Clayton , VIC Australia.
authors: Nick
authors: N
authors: Scott
authors: a Centre for Population Health; Burnet Institute; Melbourne , VIC Australia.|b Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine ; Monash University ; Clayton , VIC Australia.|c Infectious Disease Unit; The Alfred Hospital; Melbourne , VIC Australia.
authors: Margaret
authors: M
authors: Hellard
authors: a Centre for Population Health; Burnet Institute; Melbourne , VIC Australia.|d Department of Medicine ; The University of Melbourne , Parkville ; VIC Australia.|e Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine; James Cook University ; Townsville , QLD Australia.
authors: Emma Sue
authors: ES
authors: McBryde
mesh_terms: D055030:Drug Users; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000502:physiology; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000150:complications / Q000628:therapy / Q000635:transmission* / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D015995:Prevalence; D012309:Risk-Taking; D015819:Substance Abuse, Intravenous / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: Hepatitis C virus; infectious disease; injecting drug use; mathematical models; transmission