Overlapping epidemics of alcohol and illicit drug use among HCV-infected persons who inject drugs.

CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of moderate/heavy alcohol use is high among HCV antibody positive PWID and occurs frequently in combination with other drug use. This may contribute to progressive liver fibrosis thus limiting the gains achieved from HCV cure. Public health interventions need to address the overlapping epidemics of HCV, alcohol use, and other substance use in this population.
PMID: 31035079 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Source: Addictive Behaviors - April 22, 2019 Category: Addiction Authors: Irvin R, Chander G, Falade-Nwulia O, Astemborski J, Starbird L, Kirk GD, Sulkowski MS, Thomas DL, Mehta SH Tags: Addict Behav Source Type: research