Trickey, Adam and Croxford, Sara and Emanuel, Eva and Ijaz, Samreen and Hickman, Matthew and Kesten, Joanna and Thomas, Clare and Edmundson, Claire and Desai, Monica and Vickerman, Peter (2022) The effectiveness of low dead space syringes for reducing the risk of hepatitis C virus acquisition among people who inject drugs - findings from a national survey in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 75, (6), pp. 1073-1077. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciac140.
External website: https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/1...
Syringes with attached needles (termed fixed low dead space syringes [LDSS]) retain less blood following injection than syringes with detachable needles, but evidence on them reducing blood borne virus transmission among people who inject drugs (PWID) is lacking. Utilising the UK Unlinked Anonymous Monitoring cross-sectional bio-behavioural surveys among PWID for 2016/18/19 (n=1429), we showed that always using fixed LDSS was associated with 76% lower likelihood (adjusted Odds Ratio=0.24, 95%CI: 0.08-0.67) of recent hepatitis C virus infection (RNA-positive and antibody-negative) among antibody-negative PWID compared to using any syringes with detachable needles.
G Health and disease > Disease by cause (Aetiology) > Communicable / infectious disease > Hepatitis C (HCV)
J Health care, prevention, harm reduction and treatment > Health related issues > Health information and education > Communicable / infectious disease control
T Demographic characteristics > Person who injects drugs (Intravenous / injecting)
VA Geographic area > Europe > United Kingdom > Wales
VA Geographic area > Europe > United Kingdom > England
VA Geographic area > Europe > Northern Ireland
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