Opioid substitution treatment (OST) to prevent HCV and HIV infection and reduce injecting risk behaviours

OST has been found to be effective in a a systematic review with meta-analysis (Platt et al., 2017, 28 studies, N= 11 070 PWID) in:

• reducing the risk of HCV acquisition by 50% (RR 0.50, 95 % CI 0.40 to 0.63).

Another systematic review (Palmateer et al., 2022, 27 systematic review, 61 studies) confirmed the results and found sufficient evidence to support the effectiveness of OST in:

• the prevention of primary HCV infection and HCV reinfection among PWID
• the prevention of HIV seroconversion, especially for those in continuous treatment
• the prevention of the frequency of injection, the sharing of injecting equipment and injecting risk behaviour