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Knowledge of HCV status influences equipment-sharing in IDUs
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Injection drug users who knew they had hepatitis C were more likely to share their injection equipment with those who also had hepatitis C, researchers from the CDC have found.
“Serosorting is said to occur when viral serostatus serves as a determining factor in a person’s choice of sex or drug-injecting partners and in the selection of behaviors stemming from that choice,” the researchers reported in the Journal of Infectious Diseases. “While serosorting has been used most notably to describe the sexual choices of [men who have sex with men], researchers have found similar trends among [injection drug users].”
The researchers used data from the National HIV Behavioral Surveillance System-Injection Drug Users study conducted between September and December 2009. For this study, 9,690 were included because they had self-reported their HCV status and the HCV status of their last injection equipment-sharing partner in the past 12 months.
Among the participants who knew their HCV status, 56.8% reported HCV positivity. Among the participants who reported sharing their injecting equipment, 37.7% knew the HCV status of their last sharing partner. Compared with those with unknown HCV status, HCV-positive participants were five times more likely to share with an HCV-positive partner. But people with known HCV status were less likely to share with a partner of unknown HCV status, compared with those of an unknown status.
Those who knew their HCV status were more likely to know their sharing partner’s HCV status than those with an unknown HCV status. HCV-positive participants were more than four times likely to know their partner’s status and HCV-negative participants were two times likely to know the status.
“Future research should include analyses of serosorting behavior based on actual versus perceived HCV status,” the researchers wrote. “Finally, given the unexplained differences in knowledge of serostatus by gender, race, educational attainment and homelessness, additional research should be conducted to examine these issues fully.”
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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