Integrated HIV Prevention and HCV Care for PWID (M2HepPrEP)

Columbia University

Status: Active, not recruiting

Conditions: HIV Prevention; Opioid Use; HCV; Intravenous Drug Usage

Treatments: Behavioral: ARTAS Adapted Patient Navigation; Behavioral: Adherence Counseling

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT03981445

R01DA045713 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

AAAR5478

Details and patient eligibility

About

The objective of this study is to compare and evaluate two strategies of delivering PrEP and Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) treatment to people who inject drugs to determine the best method of providing care. Participants will be randomized to one of two treatment arms: on-site integrated care or off-site referral to specialized care.

Full description

The first strategy, the on-site integrated care model, provides opioid agonist therapy (OAT) clinics and harm reduction sites/syringe access programs (SAP) with the tools to offer HIV prevention and HCV treatment on-site. The second strategy, the off-site referrals to specialized care model, connects people who are at risk for contracting HIV with patient navigators who help them access available HIV prevention care and, if necessary, HCV treatment.

Enrollment: 446 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 64 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Individuals must meet the following criteria to be eligible to participate in the RCT:

1. be 18-64 years of age
2. report injection drug use in the past 6-months
3. be HIV negative
4. provide informed consent
5. complete a medical release form
6. report living in the vicinity and being able to return for follow-up over 18-months
7. be willing to use a medically acceptable form of contraception throughout the study duration (for women of childbearing potential)
8. be able to communicate in English or French (site dependent)
9. be receiving services at an opioid agonist therapy clinic or a syringe access program

Individuals must meet the following criteria to be eligible to participate in the qualitative interview:

1. have completed the first 6 months of RCT follow up (RCT participant interviews);
2. provide informed consent;
3. have contributed to assessments/interviews, intervention and/or treatment follow-ups (staff interviews).

Exclusion criteria

Individuals will be excluded from the RCT if they:

1. have any disabling medical conditions as assessed by medical history, physical exam, vital signs, and/or laboratory assessments that in the opinion of the study physician preclude safe participation in the study or ability to provide fully informed consent.
2. have any disabling mental conditions as assessed by medical history and clinical assessment that in the opinion of the study physician precludes safe participation in the study or ability to provide fully informed consent.
3. have chronic renal failure
4. have or have history of decompensated cirrhosis
5. are HIV-positive or have symptoms of an acute HIV infection
6. are pregnant (verified via pregnancy test), are planning to be pregnant during the course of the study, or breastfeeding
7. have an allergy or contraindication to one of the study medications
8. have prior HCV treatment failure with direct-acting antiviral (DAA) regimens (Except those who were treated, cured the virus, but were re-infected with a new virus)
9. are currently on PrEP and/or HCV treatment.
10. are currently in prison, in any inpatient overnight facility as required by court of law or have a pending legal action, which may prevent an individual from completing the study.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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446 participants in 2 patient groups

On-site Integrated Care with Adherence Counseling

Experimental group

Description:

Participants randomized to the on-site integrated care with adherence counselling arm will be prescribed pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) (Truvada®) and, if indicated, Hepatitis C (HCV) treatment (Epclusa®) at the OAT clinic or SAP from which they were recruited. In addition to PrEP and, if indicated, HCV care, participants in the on-site integrated care arm will receive any required health care services as per local standard of care. Addiction treatment, OAT, and mental health services will be provided, if necessary and available. Participants recruited at syringe access programs (SAP) will be offered addiction counseling and treatment, including OAT when in the integrated care arm in addition to site standard of care.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Adherence Counseling

Off-site Referral to Specialized Care with Patient Navigation

Experimental group

Description:

Participants randomized to the off-site referral to specialized care and patient navigation group will be linked to primary care for PrEP and, if necessary, HCV treatment by a patient navigator. Given the replicated success of the AntiRetroviral Treatment Access Study (ARTAS) intervention regarding linking HIV-infected individuals to HIV primary care, we adapted ARTAS to facilitate people who inject drugs linkage with PrEP and, if necessary, HCV treatment services. Participants in the off-site care arm will be prescribed PrEP and, if necessary, HCV treatment by their off-site physician. All necessary care will also be provided to participants by their off-site physician. Off-site physicians will be notified that if their patients are placed on a waiting list, unable to afford, or are otherwise unable to immediately access PrEP or HCV treatment, Truvada® and Epclusa® are available to participants of the M2HepPrEP study immediately and free of charge.

Treatment:

Behavioral: ARTAS Adapted Patient Navigation