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Values and preferences for hepatitis C self-testing among people who inject drugs in Kyrgyzstan
BACKGROUND: The prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) among people who inject drugs (PWID) continues to be a major public-health burden in this highly stigmatised population. To halt transmission of HCV, rapid HCV self-testing kits represent an innovative approach that could enable PWID to know thei...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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BioMed Central
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8233180/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34171990 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12879-021-06332-z |
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author | Martínez-Pérez, Guillermo Z. Nikitin, Danil S. Bessonova, Alla Fajardo, Emmanuel Bessonov, Sergei Shilton, Sonjelle |
author_facet | Martínez-Pérez, Guillermo Z. Nikitin, Danil S. Bessonova, Alla Fajardo, Emmanuel Bessonov, Sergei Shilton, Sonjelle |
author_sort | Martínez-Pérez, Guillermo Z. |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: The prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) among people who inject drugs (PWID) continues to be a major public-health burden in this highly stigmatised population. To halt transmission of HCV, rapid HCV self-testing kits represent an innovative approach that could enable PWID to know their HCV status and seek treatment. As no HCV test has yet been licenced for self-administration, it is crucial to obtain knowledge around the factors that may deter or foster delivery of HCV self-testing among PWID in resource-constrained countries. METHODS: A qualitative study to assess values and preferences relating to HCV self-testing was conducted in mid-2020 among PWID in the Bishkek and Chui regions of Kyrgyzstan. Forty-seven PWID participated in 15 individual interviews, two group interviews (n = 12) and one participatory action-research session (n = 20). Responses were analysed using a thematic analysis approach with 4 predefined themes: awareness of HCV and current HCV testing experiences, and acceptability and service delivery preferences for HCV self-testing. Informants’ insights were analysed using a thematic analysis approach. This research received local ethics approval. RESULTS: Awareness of HCV is low and currently PWID prefer community-based HCV testing due to stigma encountered in other healthcare settings. HCV self-testing would be accepted and appreciated by PWID. Acceptability may increase if HCV self-testing: was delivered in pharmacies or by harm reduction associations; was free of charge; was oral rather than blood-based; included instructions with images and clear information on the test’s accuracy; and was distributed alongside pre- and post-testing counselling with linkage to confirmatory testing support. CONCLUSIONS: HCV self-testing could increase awareness of and more frequent testing for HCV infection among PWID in Kyrgyzstan. It is recommended that peer-driven associations are involved in the delivery of any HCV self-testing. Furthermore, efforts should be maximised to end discrimination against PWID at the healthcare institutions responsible for confirmatory HCV testing and treatment provision. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8233180 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-82331802021-06-28 Values and preferences for hepatitis C self-testing among people who inject drugs in Kyrgyzstan Martínez-Pérez, Guillermo Z. Nikitin, Danil S. Bessonova, Alla Fajardo, Emmanuel Bessonov, Sergei Shilton, Sonjelle BMC Infect Dis Research BACKGROUND: The prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) among people who inject drugs (PWID) continues to be a major public-health burden in this highly stigmatised population. To halt transmission of HCV, rapid HCV self-testing kits represent an innovative approach that could enable PWID to know their HCV status and seek treatment. As no HCV test has yet been licenced for self-administration, it is crucial to obtain knowledge around the factors that may deter or foster delivery of HCV self-testing among PWID in resource-constrained countries. METHODS: A qualitative study to assess values and preferences relating to HCV self-testing was conducted in mid-2020 among PWID in the Bishkek and Chui regions of Kyrgyzstan. Forty-seven PWID participated in 15 individual interviews, two group interviews (n = 12) and one participatory action-research session (n = 20). Responses were analysed using a thematic analysis approach with 4 predefined themes: awareness of HCV and current HCV testing experiences, and acceptability and service delivery preferences for HCV self-testing. Informants’ insights were analysed using a thematic analysis approach. This research received local ethics approval. RESULTS: Awareness of HCV is low and currently PWID prefer community-based HCV testing due to stigma encountered in other healthcare settings. HCV self-testing would be accepted and appreciated by PWID. Acceptability may increase if HCV self-testing: was delivered in pharmacies or by harm reduction associations; was free of charge; was oral rather than blood-based; included instructions with images and clear information on the test’s accuracy; and was distributed alongside pre- and post-testing counselling with linkage to confirmatory testing support. CONCLUSIONS: HCV self-testing could increase awareness of and more frequent testing for HCV infection among PWID in Kyrgyzstan. It is recommended that peer-driven associations are involved in the delivery of any HCV self-testing. Furthermore, efforts should be maximised to end discrimination against PWID at the healthcare institutions responsible for confirmatory HCV testing and treatment provision. BioMed Central 2021-06-26 /pmc/articles/PMC8233180/ /pubmed/34171990 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12879-021-06332-z Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. |
spellingShingle | Research Martínez-Pérez, Guillermo Z. Nikitin, Danil S. Bessonova, Alla Fajardo, Emmanuel Bessonov, Sergei Shilton, Sonjelle Values and preferences for hepatitis C self-testing among people who inject drugs in Kyrgyzstan |
title | Values and preferences for hepatitis C self-testing among people who inject drugs in Kyrgyzstan |
title_full | Values and preferences for hepatitis C self-testing among people who inject drugs in Kyrgyzstan |
title_fullStr | Values and preferences for hepatitis C self-testing among people who inject drugs in Kyrgyzstan |
title_full_unstemmed | Values and preferences for hepatitis C self-testing among people who inject drugs in Kyrgyzstan |
title_short | Values and preferences for hepatitis C self-testing among people who inject drugs in Kyrgyzstan |
title_sort | values and preferences for hepatitis c self-testing among people who inject drugs in kyrgyzstan |
topic | Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8233180/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34171990 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12879-021-06332-z |
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