Hepatitis C bei Drogengebrauchern

Injection drug use (IDU) is regarded as the most important trans-mission route for the hepatitis C virus (HCV). Prevalence of HCV in long-time IDUs is as high as 80–97%. Liver cirrhosis will de-velop in 2–20% of chronically infected, whereas these numbers are expected to be higher in IDUs. Besides somatic complica-tions, chronic HCV-infection is associated with neurocognitive impairment, quality of life reductions and increased frequencies of depression. Antiviral treatment of HCV is cost-effective, and rates of sustained viral response of 50–80% are achieved; how-ever treatment of IDUs still is controversially discussed. Newer treatment guidelines tend to be more permissive.

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