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 . (20th February 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Trickey, Adam; Croxford, Sara; Emanuel, Eva; Ijaz, Samreen; Hickman, Matthew; Kesten, Joanna; Thomas, Clare; Edmundson, Claire; Desai, Monica; Vickerman, Peter
• Is Part Of: Clinical infectious diseases. Volume 75:Number 6(2022)
• Page Start: 1073
• Page End: 1077
• Publication Date: 2022-02-20
• Subjects: low dead space syringes -- high dead space syringes -- injecting drugs -- IDU -- HCV; Communicable diseases -- Periodicals; 616.905
• DOI: 10.1093/cid/ciac140
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1058-4838

Abstract

Abstract: 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. Utilizing the UK Unlinked Anonymous Monitoring cross-sectional bio-behavioral 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% confidence interval [CI]: .08–.67) of recent hepatitis C virus infection (RNA-positive and antibody-negative) among antibody-negative PWID compared to using any syringes with detachable needles.