Risk behaviours and viral infections among drug injecting migrants from the former Soviet Union in Germany: Results from the DRUCK-study

Derks, Lineke; Gassowski, Martyna; Nielsen, Stine; Heiden, Matthias an der; Bannert, Norbert; Bock, C.‐Thomas; Bremer, Viviane; Kücherer, Claudia; Roß, Stefan; Wenz, Benjamin; Marcus, Ulrich; Zimmermann, Ruth; Dettmer, Kerstin; Fechner, Tobias; Hecht, Andreas; Heinz, Werner; Kerres, Christiane; Klee, Jürgen; Leicht, Astrid; Lein, Sylke; Marrziniak, Bärbel; Ostermann, Olaf; Santos-Hövener, Claudia; Schäffer, Dirk; Scherbaum, Norbert; Stein, Ina

doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2018.06.011

Cited by 6 publications

(31 citation statements)

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“…48 HCV seroprevalence was 74.5% in FSU migrants vs 64.6% in native Germans (P = 0.006) with a higher proportion of FSU migrants reporting injection-related risk behaviors than native Germans. 48 This highlights the need for access to, and acceptance of, harm reduction measures, together with HCV treatment in this high-risk subpopulation of FSU migrants.…”

Section: Migrantsmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…The other most common countries of birth included the Russian Federation (n = 117), Kazakhstan (n = 64), and Poland (n = 61) and the other most common nationalities of patients were the Russian Federation (n = 54), Georgia (n = 42), and Poland (n = 40) 9 . HCV and HIV seroprevalence with related risk behaviors in first‐generation former Soviet Union (FSU) migrants and native Germans using drugs has been investigated by the DRUCK study, which used data from a sero‐behavioral survey of PWID 48 . HCV seroprevalence was 74.5% in FSU migrants vs 64.6% in native Germans ( P = 0.006) with a higher proportion of FSU migrants reporting injection‐related risk behaviors than native Germans 48 .…”

Section: Barriers and Challenges To Eliminationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…HCV and HIV seroprevalence with related risk behaviors in first‐generation former Soviet Union (FSU) migrants and native Germans using drugs has been investigated by the DRUCK study, which used data from a sero‐behavioral survey of PWID 48 . HCV seroprevalence was 74.5% in FSU migrants vs 64.6% in native Germans ( P = 0.006) with a higher proportion of FSU migrants reporting injection‐related risk behaviors than native Germans 48 . This highlights the need for access to, and acceptance of, harm reduction measures, together with HCV treatment in this high‐risk subpopulation of FSU migrants.…”

Section: Barriers and Challenges To Eliminationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Hepatitis C virus: Current steps toward elimination in Germany and barriers to reaching the 2030 goal

Sarrazin

Boesecke

Golsabahi-Broclawski³

et al. 2021

Health Science Reports

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Hepatitis C virus (HCV) affects over 70 million people globally, with an estimated 399 000 HCV‐related deaths in 2016. The World Health Organization (WHO) has set a goal to eliminate HCV by 2030. Despite the availability of direct‐acting antivirals—highly effective and well‐tolerated therapies for HCV—many patients infected with HCV in Germany have not initiated treatment, including a majority of those who are aware of their positive diagnosis. Barriers to screening, diagnosis, and treatment are major factors taking many countries off track for HCV elimination by 2030. Identifying country‐specific barriers and challenges, particularly in at‐risk populations such as people who inject drugs or men who have sex with men, has the potential to create tailored programs and strategies to increase access to screening or treatment and engage at‐risk populations. This review aims to report the current steps toward HCV elimination in Germany, the country‐specific barriers and challenges that will potentially prevent reaching the 2030 HCV elimination goal and describe good practice examples to overcome these barriers.

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Section: Migrantsmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Barriers and Challenges To Eliminationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Barriers and Challenges To Eliminationmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Hepatitis C virus: Current steps toward elimination in Germany and barriers to reaching the 2030 goal

Sarrazin

Boesecke

Golsabahi-Broclawski³

et al. 2021

Health Science Reports

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Even if the decision to leave one's country is always difficult in contexts of forced migration, some researchers have remarked that those who see it through stand out both in socio-cultural standing (compared to other users in walk-in services, which has been observed in France [13] and in Germany [22]) and in their hopes of gaining access to adequate treatment [12,19,23]. With a higher proportion of people who have some higher education than among French-speaking PWID (43.0% vs 27.6%) [13] and a significant focus on gaining access to treatment and a normalized lifestyle, our observations confirm these findings.…”

Section: A Particularly Vulnerable Populationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Concerning the first point, beyond implementing targeted measures (like medical testing and antiviral treatment) [22], some French language researchers recommend hiring interpreters at walk-in services [12,24] and taking into account cultural variables when offering already existing care [14,23] in order to facilitate follow-up. The goal is to reduce the number of linguistic and cultural obstacles further marginalizing an already wary population, all the while meeting the most isolated individuals where they are through peer outreach aimed at encouraging the "creation of social ties" that could gradually bring them to seek treatment [23][24][25][26].…”

Section: Improving Care In France and In Drug Users' Home Countriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Migration experiences, life conditions, and drug use practices of Russian-speaking drug users who live in Paris: a mixed-method analysis from the ANRS-Coquelicot study

et al. 2020

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Background: After the collapse of the Soviet Union at the beginning of the 1990s, people who inject drugs spiked in Eastern Europe. Facing local repression and an array of factors encouraging emigration, some users have migrated to France. This population now make up to a third of the patient list of some harm reduction services in Paris. This article aims to present original data on the sociodemographic profiles of these users, on their migration trajectory, their life conditions, and on the evolution of their drug use practices since arriving in Paris. Methods: Data were collected as part of the ANRS-Coquelicot Survey, an HIV and HCV seroprevalence study among French-speaking people who use drugs. A sub-sample of Russian-speaking drug users who had relocated from Eastern Europe to live in Paris completed a quantitative questionnaire (N = 150) and a qualitative semistructured interview (N = 20). The survey aimed to describe participants' backgrounds, and a thematic analysis of interviews was conducted to explore participants' migration histories, their life conditions in Paris, and their drug use practices before and after arriving in France. Results: This study highlights the great vulnerability of the participating population, often following a loss of social status after migrating to France. Another important finding is that participants had better access to harm reduction tools and reduced their risk of exposure to HIV and HCV infections linked to needle sharing. Although 60% said they had already shared a syringe in their lifetime (49.9% of them in their home country), the proportions shrank to 13.9% after they arrived in France and to 9.3% in the month before the study, a proportion that is lower than among French-speaking people who use drugs. Conclusions: Our main findings on the profiles and behaviors of the study population lead us to make two recommendations: to offer stronger global care to these users in Paris and to reform drug policy in their home countries by integrating it into a public health approach.

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Prevalence of hepatitis C infection among the general population and high-risk groups in the EU/EEA: a systematic review update

et al. 2019

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Background Although significant improvement in efficacy measured by a sustained virological response, the high acquisition costs of direct-acting antivirals limit the access for patients and influence the costs of healthcare resource utilisation in hepatitis C. It is important to have the latest estimates of prevalence, especially in high-risk groups, for cost of illness, cost-effectiveness and budget impact studies. Methods Original studies on the estimates of the prevalence among general and high-risk groups in the European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) were retrieved from Medline and Embase for the period from 2015 to 2018. All included studies were evaluated for risk of selection bias and summarised together in a narrative form. Results from previous reviews and updated searches were compared per country among different populations, respectively. Results Among the 3871 studies identified, 46 studies were included: 20 studies were used for the estimate of the general population; 3 for men who have sex with men (MSM); 6 for prisoners; and 17 for people who inject drugs (PWID). Compared with the results reported in previous systematic reviews, the updated estimates were lower than previously in most available countries. Anti-HCV general population prevalence estimates ranged from 0.54 to 1.50% by country. The highest prevalence of anti-HCV was found among PWID (range of 7.90–82.00%), followed by prisoners (7.00–41.00%), HIV-positive MSM (1.80–7.10%), HIV-negative MSM (0.20–1.80%), pregnant women (0.10–1.32%) and first-time blood donors (0.03–0.09%). Conclusions Our study highlights the heterogeneity in anti-HCV prevalence across different population groups in EU/EEA. The prevalence also varies widely between European countries. There are many countries that are not represented in our results, highlighting the need for the development of robust epidemiological studies. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12879-019-4284-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Risk behaviours and viral infections among drug injecting migrants from the former Soviet Union in Germany: Results from the DRUCK-study

Cited by 6 publications

References 41 publications

Hepatitis C virus: Current steps toward elimination in Germany and barriers to reaching the 2030 goal

Hepatitis C virus: Current steps toward elimination in Germany and barriers to reaching the 2030 goal

Migration experiences, life conditions, and drug use practices of Russian-speaking drug users who live in Paris: a mixed-method analysis from the ANRS-Coquelicot study

Prevalence of hepatitis C infection among the general population and high-risk groups in the EU/EEA: a systematic review update

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