nam/aidsmap, 5th June 2017
Six questions can identify HIV-positive gay men who are at elevated risk of having acute (recent) hepatitis C infection and who would benefit from further testing, according to a paper published in Eurosurveillance last week. The risk score was based on data from a Dutch cohort and has been validated with separate datasets from Belgium, the Netherlands and England.
The six questions in the risk score concern self-reported behaviours:
- Condomless receptive anal intercourse in the past six months (score 1.1)
- Sharing of sex toys in the past six months (score 1.2)
- Fisting without gloves in the past six months (score 0.9)
- Injecting drug use in the past 12 months (score 1.4)
- Sharing of straws to snort drugs in the past 12 months (score 1.0)
- An ulcerative sexually transmitted infection in the past 12 months (score 1.4)
Read more here