Volume 31, Issue 11 pp. 686-699
ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Post-Diagnosis HCV RNA Testing Rates Prior to HCV Treatment Among People Living With HIV With HCV Antibody Positivity in the Asia-Pacific Region

Dhanushi Rupasinghe

Corresponding Author

Dhanushi Rupasinghe

The Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Correspondence:

Dhanushi Rupasinghe ([email protected])

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Jun Yong Choi

Jun Yong Choi

Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea

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Nagalingeswaran Kumarasamy

Nagalingeswaran Kumarasamy

CART CRS, Voluntary Health Services, Chennai, India

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Sanjay Pujari

Sanjay Pujari

Institute of Infectious Diseases, Pune, India

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Vohith Khol

Vohith Khol

National Center for HIV/AIDS, Dermatology & STDs, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

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I. Ketut Agus Somia

I. Ketut Agus Somia

Faculty of Medicine Udayana University & Sanglah Hospital, Bali, Indonesia

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Man Po Lee

Man Po Lee

Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR

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Thach Ngoc Pham

Thach Ngoc Pham

National Hospital for Tropical Diseases, Hanoi, Vietnam

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Sasisopin Kiertiburanakul

Sasisopin Kiertiburanakul

Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand

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Cuong Duy Do

Cuong Duy Do

Bach Mai Hospital, Hanoi, Vietnam

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Anchalee Avihingsanon

Anchalee Avihingsanon

HIV-NAT/Thai Red Cross AIDS Research Centre and Center of Excellence in Tuberculosis, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

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Jeremy Ross

Jeremy Ross

TREAT Asia, amfAR – The Foundation for AIDS Research, Bangkok, Thailand

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Awachana Jiamsakul

Awachana Jiamsakul

The Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

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on behalf the International Epidemiology Databases to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA) Asia-Pacific

on behalf the International Epidemiology Databases to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA) Asia-Pacific

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First published: 08 August 2024

Funding: The TREAT Asia HIV Observational Database Low-Intensity TransfEr study is an initiative of TREAT Asia, a program of amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, with support from the US National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, and the Fogarty International Center, as part of the International Epidemiology Databases to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA; U01 AI069907). The Kirby Institute is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, and is affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine, UNSW Sydney. The content of this publication is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of any of the governments or institutions mentioned above.

ABSTRACT

HCV RNA test determines current active infection and is a requirement prior to initiating HCV treatment. We investigated trends and factors associated with post-diagnosis HCV RNA testing rates prior to HCV treatment, and risk factors for first positive HCV RNA among people living with HIV (PLHIV) with HCV in the Asia-Pacific region. PLHIV with positive HCV antibody and in follow-up after 2010 were included. Patients were considered HCV-antibody positive if they ever tested positive for HCV antibody (HCVAb). Repeated measures Poisson regression model was used to analyse factors associated with post-diagnosis HCV RNA testing rates from positive HCVAb test. Factors associated with time to first positive HCV RNA from positive HCVAb test were analysed using Cox regression model. There were 767 HCVAb positive participants included (87% from LMICs) of whom 11% had HCV RNA tests. With 163 HCV RNA tests post positive HCVAb test, the overall testing rate was 5.05 per 100 person-years. Factors associated with increased testing rates included later calendar years of follow-up, HIV viral load ≥1000 copies/mL and higher income countries. Later calendar years of follow-up, ALT >5 times its upper limit of normal, and higher income countries were associated with shorter time to first positive HCV RNA test. Testing patterns indicated that uptake was predominantly in high income countries possibly due to different strategies used to determine testing in LMICs. Expanding access to HCV RNA, such as through lower-cost point of care assays, will be required to achieve elimination of HCV as a public health issue.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Data Availability Statement

As part of Ethics agreements, data are not available publicly.

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