Journal article

High Rates of Hepatitis C Virus Reinfection and Spontaneous Clearance of Reinfection in People Who Inject Drugs: A Prospective Cohort Study

Rachel Sacks-Davis, Campbell K Aitken, Peter Higgs, Tim Spelman, Alisa E Pedrana, Scott Bowden, Mandvi Bharadwaj, Usha K Nivarthi, Vijayaprakash Suppiah, Jacob George, Jason Grebely, Heidi E Drummer, Margaret Hellard

PLOS ONE | PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE | Published : 2013

Abstract

UNLABELLED: Hepatitis C virus reinfection and spontaneous clearance of reinfection were examined in a highly characterised cohort of 188 people who inject drugs over a five-year period. Nine confirmed reinfections and 17 possible reinfections were identified (confirmed reinfections were those genetically distinct from the previous infection and possible reinfections were used to define instances where genetic differences between infections could not be assessed due to lack of availability of hepatitis C virus sequence data). The incidence of confirmed reinfection was 28.8 per 100 person-years (PY), 95%CI: 15.0-55.4; the combined incidence of confirmed and possible reinfection was 24.6 per 10..

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Grants

Awarded by Australia's National Health and Medical Research Council


Funding Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Australia's National Health and Medical Research Council [project grant 331312, postgraduate scholarship to RSD, training fellowship to PH, RD Wright Career Development Award to HED, senior research fellowship 1041897 to HED, Career Development Fellowship to JGr, project grant 1020175 to HED, project grant 1006759 to JGe, Senior Research Fellowship to MH]; the Victorian Department of Human Services [public health research grant, 2008-09]; the Australian Centre for HIV and Hepatitis Virology Research (ACH2); the Victorian Operational Infrastructure Support Program; the Burnet Institute; the Centre for Research Excellence into Injecting Drug Use; and the Robert W. Storr Bequest to the Medical Foundation of the University of Sydney [to JGe]. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.