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Objective: To evaluate the feasibility of testing and treating people who inject drugs at a supervised injecting facility for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting, participants: People who inject drugs who attended the Melbourne supervised injecting facility, 30 June 2018 – 30 June 2020. Main outcome measures: Proportion of people tested for hepatitis C; proportions of people positive for anti‐HCV antibody and HCV RNA, and of eligible people prescribed direct‐acting antiviral (DAA) treatment; sustained virological response twelve weeks or more after treatment completion. Results: Of 4649 people who attended the supervised injecting facility during 2018–20, 321 were tested for hepatitis C (7%); 279 were anti‐HCV antibody‐positive (87%), of whom 143 (51%) were also HCV RNA‐positive. Sixty‐four of 321 had previously been treated for hepatitis C (20%), 21 had clinically identified cirrhosis (7%), eight had hepatitis B infections (2%), and four had human immunodeficiency virus infections (1%). In multivariate analyses, people tested for hepatitis C were more likely than untested clients to report psychiatric illness (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 9.65; 95% confidence interval [CI], 7.26–12.8), not have a fixed address (aOR, 1.59; 95% CI, 1.18–2.14), and to report significant alcohol use (aOR, 1.57; 95% CI, 1.06–2.32). The median number of injecting facility visits was larger for those tested for hepatitis C (101; interquartile range [IQR], 31–236) than for those not tested (20; IQR, 3–90). DAA treatment was prescribed for 126 of 143 HCV RNA‐positive clients (88%); 41 of 54 with complete follow‐up data were cured (76%). Conclusions: People who attend supervised injecting facilities can be tested and treated for hepatitis C on site. Models that provide streamlined, convenient hepatitis C care promote engagement with treatment in a group in which the prevalence of hepatitis C is high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To differentiate the severity of acute opioid toxicity and describe both the clinical and physiological features associated with heroin overdose in a cohort of witnessed overdose cases. Witnessed heroin overdose cases over a 12-month period (30 June 2018 – 30 June 2019) at the Medically Supervised Injecting Room (MSIR) in Melbourne, Australia were examined. The severity of acute opioid toxicity was classified according to the level of clinical intervention required to manage the overdose cases where an escalating level of care was provided. Heroin overdose cases were classified into one of three graded severity categories and a fourth complicated heroin overdose category. A total of 1218 heroin overdose cases were identified from 60,693 supervised injecting visits over the study period. On the spectrum of toxicity, 78% (n = 955) of overdose cases were classified as Grade 1 severity, 7% (n = 83) as Grade 2 severity, and 13% (n = 161) as Grade 3 acute opioid toxicity severity cases, as well as 2% (n = 19) classified as complicated heroin overdose cases. The median onset time for heroin overdose cases was 17 min (IQR 11–28 min) from the time the individual was ready to prepare and inject heroin until clinical intervention was initiated. We demonstrated that heroin overdose is a dynamic illness and cases differ in the severity of acute opioid toxicity. The risk of airway occlusion including positional asphyxia was an early and consistent feature across all levels of toxicity, while exaggerated respiratory depression together with exaggerated depression of consciousness was increasingly observed with greater levels of toxicity. We also demonstrated the importance of early intervention in overdose cases, where in a large cohort of heroin overdose cases there were no fatal outcomes, a very low hospitalisation rate and most cases were able to be managed to clinical resolution on-site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: supervised injecting facility; opioid agonist treatment; depot buprenorphine; people who inject drugs EN supervised injecting facility opioid agonist treatment depot buprenorphine people who inject drugs 1354 1355 2 11/16/21 20211101 NES 211101 The Medically Supervised Injecting Room (MSIR) opened in June 2018 in Melbourne, Australia [1]. At the time of first presentation to our opioid agonist treatment clinic to discuss commencing depot buprenorphine, eight clients had recent methadone prescriptions and two had recent sublingual buprenorphine-naloxone prescriptions. Since becoming available in Australia in September 2019, we have offered subcutaneous depot buprenorphine (depot buprenorphine) [2] in addition to methadone and sublingual buprenorphine-naloxone in our low threshold, co-located opioid agonist treatment clinic. [Extracted from the article]