Retrospective cohort study examining incidence of HIV and hepatitis C infection among injecting drug users in Dublin
- B P Smyth1,
- J J O’Connor2,
- J Barry3,
- E Keenan4
- 1Wellcroft Centre, Huyton, UK
- 2Trinity Court Drug Treatment Centre, Dublin, Ireland
- 3Department of Public Health, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
- 4AIDS/ Drugs Service, Cherry Orchard Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
- Correspondence to: Dr B Smyth, Wellcroft Centre, Wellcroft Road, Huyton L36 7TA, UK; bobbypsmyth{at}hotmail.com
- Accepted 22 August 2002
Unsafe injecting results in increased rates of hepatitis C and HIV among populations of injecting drug users. It is well established that it is unsafe to use needles or syringes that have previously been used by another injecting drug user.1 There is growing evidence that it is unsafe to share a “cooker”, filter, or other injecting paraphernalia with another injector.1 Most injecting drug users in Dublin report sharing of syringes and injecting paraphelalia.2 In Dublin, the prevalences of HIV and hepatitis C among injecting drug users were found to be 1.2% and 61.8% respectively.3 The incidence of hepatitis C among injecting drug users has now been examined in North America, Australia, and a number of European countries and has ranged from 16 to 38 per 100 person years.1,4,5 We sought to measure the incidence of hepatitis C and HIV among injecting drug users in Dublin.
PATIENTS, METHODS, AND RESULTS
Our methodology replicated that of van Beek.4 Since 1992, all attenders at Trinity Court drug treatment centre with a history of injecting …
