1. 2018 Postgraduate Research Symposium: Exploring opportunities
Risk behaviour and reinfection: Longitudinal sexual and drug use behaviours among HIV/HCV co-infected population in Australia
Samira Hosseini Hooshyar
PhD Candidate | Viral Hepatitis Research Program, Kirby Institute
Supervisors: A/Professor Gail Matthews, Professor Gregory Dore, Dr. Marianne Martinello and A/Professor Jason Grebely

2. BACKGROUND
The Control and Elimination of HCV from HIV-infected individuals within Australia
Objective:
To evaluate the feasibility of rapid scale-up of DAA treatments and impact on the proportion with HCV viraemia within the HIV-HCV population of Australia.
Design:
Observational cohort study
Eligibility:
Adults (≥18 years)
HIV infection
past (HCV Ab +, RNA -) or current (HCV Ab +ve, RNA +ve) HCV infection
Assessments:
Enrolment: 1 July March 2017
Follow-up1: 26 May May 2018

3. 49 95% 80% 2% 13% 79% 72% 595 70% 93% 4% Baseline Characteristics
Age (mean) 49
Male
95%
GBM
80%
ATSI ethnicity 2%
Cirrhosis
13%
IDU ever
79%
HCV RNA positive
72%
CD4 (median, 106/L)
595
HIV VL BLoD
70%
cART
93%
HBsAg 4%

4. Injecting Risk behaviours at enrolment and follow-up 1
36%
35%
33%
33%
25%
24%
23%
17%
13%
11%
* among Recent IDU

5. Sexual Risk behaviours at enrolment and follow-up 1
69%
68%
63%
51%
53%
40%
34%
25%
P =0.000
P =0.002
P =0.020

6. Conclusion and next aims
No evidence of increasing HCV risk behaviors to date
Injecting risk remaining stable
Some reduction in sexual risk behaviour
Next steps:
To identify associations with risk behaviours at baseline
To evaluate factors associated with change in risk behaviours between enrolment and follow up
To estimate the incidence of HCV reinfection and identify predictors of reinfection among participants
Methods
Logistic regression, Generalized estimating equations (GEE) and person‐time of observation and Exact Poisson regression analysis using extended data set from baseline and longitudinal surveys