Résumé
•In Haiphong, Vietnam, many people who inject drugs have hepatitis C virus (HCV).•We modelled the impact and costs of interventions to reduce new HCV infections.•Interventions incorporated HCV testing and treatment with other services.•This was with behavioural surveys and treatment centres for HIV or opioid dependence.•These interventions would reduce HCV incidence to low levels and be cost-effective.
In Haiphong, Vietnam, most hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections occur among people who inject drugs (PWID). As part of multiple respondent-driven sampling (RDS) surveys among PWID in Haiphong, an intervention (DRIVE-C) provided HCV testing and treatment in 2019. Centres providing opiate agonist treatment (OAT) or antiretroviral therapy (ART) also provided HCV testing and linkage-to-treatment in 2021/22. We modelled the impact and cost-effectiveness of HCV testing and treatment for PWID in Haiphong.
An HCV transmission model among PWID and former injectors was calibrated in a Bayesian framework using data from Haiphong. A status quo (SQ) scenario modelled past interventions, with no future HCV treatment. A future intervention scenario modelled the impact of providing HCV testing and linkage-to-treatment in OAT and ART centres, and annual RDS survey interventions over 2025–2030, each testing 1400 PWID. We estimated the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) per disability adjusted life-year (DALY) averted for the future scenario compared to SQ over 2025–2054 (3 % annual discount rate).
For the SQ scenario, HCV incidence decreased from 8.1 (95 % credibility interval 5.1–13.6) per 100 person-years (/100pyrs) in 2015 to 5.3/100pyrs (3.0–9.6) in 2023 and increases to 6.2/100pyrs (3.5–10.7) in 2030. In the future intervention scenario, incidence decreases to 2.7/100pyrs (1.0–6.4) by 2030. The mean ICER is €884/DALY averted; cost-effective at a willingness-to-pay threshold of €2334 (57 % of Vietnam’s 2023 GDP per capita).
Using RDS surveys and other care settings to scale-up HCV-testing and treatment are cost-effective strategies to reduce HCV incidence among PWID in Vietnam.