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Summary: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major public health concern. Globally, 15% of those incarcerated are HCV‐antibody positive (anti‐HCV). Even where HCV treatment is available within prisons, treatment uptake has remained low. This qualitative study was conducted to understand the barriers and facilitators for the delivery of HCV treatment in prisons from the perspectives of prisoners. This is important to inform health messaging for HCV treatment within correctional institutions. Thirty‐two prisoners (including eight women) with a history of injecting drug use participated in this qualitative study. Participants were equally recruited across four correctional centres (n = 8 per site). Overall, 16 participants (50%) had chronic HCV at their most recent test, and two participants were awaiting test results at time of interview. Structural (eg proximity of health clinic) and patient‐level (routine and motivation) factors were viewed as facilitators of HCV treatment within the prison setting. Structural (eg risk of reinfection) and social (eg lack of confidentiality and lack of social support) factors were perceived as barriers to prison‐based HCV care and treatment. In conclusion, to increase HCV treatment uptake, prison‐based programmes should implement (or advocate for) patient‐centred treatment approaches that protect privacy, provide social support, and promote access to clean needles and substitution therapy to protect prisoners from reinfection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Direct-Acting Antiviral (DAA) treatments for hepatitis C have been widely promoted by health promotion professionals and medical clinicians as being 'side-effect free'. In this paper, we draw on data that troubles this approach. We used a mixed method design to collect data from people who inject drugs, and who were DAA treatment naïve, in New South Wales, Australia. We describe knowledge about and perceptions of DAA treatment. We found that concerns about side effects were commonplace - for example, one-third (37%) of participants who had not taken up treatment worried "a lot" about 'side effects' - and that these concerns were underpinned by a general distrust and suspicion of medical institutions and their technologies, including widespread negative associations linked to interferon treatment. In trying to make sense of this, we draw on the concept of counterpublic health and its recognition that the everyday health needs, knowledges and aspirations of subordinated citizens frequently contradict the normative frameworks governing public health interventions. We suggest that failing to engage with concerns about 'side effects' could hinder elimination efforts. Our analysis suggests that addressing the issue of 'side effects' within the 'public' discourse of DAAs will not dampen or damage elimination efforts, as some might fear, but rather it will legitimate the concerns of people who inject, decrease their suspicion of medical interventions, and better support the uptake of DAA treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, it is estimated that 71.1 million people have chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, including an estimated 7.5 million people who have recently injected drugs (PWID). There is an additional large, but unquantified, burden among those PWID who have ceased injecting. The incidence of HCV infection among current PWID also remains high in many settings. Morbidity and mortality due to liver disease among PWID with HCV infection continues to increase, despite the advent of well-tolerated, simple interferon-free direct-acting antiviral (DAA) HCV regimens with cure rates >95%. As a result of this important clinical breakthrough, there is potential to reverse the rising burden of advanced liver disease with increased treatment and strive for HCV elimination among PWID. Unfortunately, there are many gaps in knowledge that represent barriers to effective prevention and management of HCV among PWID. The Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney and the International Network on Hepatitis in Substance Users (INHSU) established an expert round table panel to assess current research gaps and establish future research priorities for the prevention and management of HCV among PWID. This round table consisted of a one-day workshop held on 6 September, 2016, in Oslo, Norway, prior to the International Symposium on Hepatitis in Substance Users (INHSU 2016). International experts in drug and alcohol, infectious diseases, and hepatology were brought together to discuss the available scientific evidence, gaps in research, and develop research priorities. Topics for discussion included the epidemiology of injecting drug use, HCV, and HIV among PWID, HCV prevention, HCV testing, linkage to HCV care and treatment, DAA treatment for HCV infection, and reinfection following successful treatment. This paper highlights the outcomes of the roundtable discussion focused on future research priorities for enhancing HCV prevention, testing, linkage to care and DAA treatment for PWID as we strive for global elimination of HCV infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the advent of highly effective antiviral treatment for hepatitis C, many people have undergone treatment and been cured. Others, however, have not undergone treatment, even where it is free and readily available. Australia's aim of eliminating the disease by 2030 means this group is of concern to researchers, health professionals and policymakers. This article draws on 50 interviews conducted for a research project on treatment experiences to examine treatment non-uptake in Australia. Informed by Berlant's (2007) work on 'slow death', it analyses experiences of non-uptake to explain the dynamics at work in such outcomes. The analysis is divided into three parts. First, participant Cal describes a lifetime in which hepatitis C, homelessness and prison have shaped his outlook and opportunities. Second, Evan describes intergenerational drug consumption, family contact with the prison system and an equally long history with hepatitis C. Finally, Rose also describes a long history of hepatitis C, complex struggles to improve life and contact with the prison system. All three accounts illuminate the dynamics shaping treatment decisions, calling to mind Berlant's slow death as a process of being 'worn out by the activity of reproducing life' under conditions that both demand self-management, and work against it. In concluding, the article points to Berlant's distinction between 'epidemics' and 'endemics', arguing that its politics apply directly to hepatitis C. In doing so, it highlights the need to address the criminalising, pathologising, capitalist context of 'attrition' (Berlant) that wears out lives even as it fetishises autonomy, responsibility and choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]