EATG at EACS conference (Nov 11-14, 2009 - Cologne)

EACS opening session

Nikos Dedes, EATG, presented at the opening ceremony of EACS conference 2009: "Stronger together partenering in fighting the HIV epidemic"

NikosDedes.pdf (280.69 kB)

EATG satellite at EACS "Treating HIV positive people injecting drugs in Europe: a mission possible"

Commentary by David Haerry, EATG:

This satellite session, community leaded, linking and complementary to the preceding EACS/IAS panel discussion, focused on state of the art, innovative approaches and unmet medical needs, to address the key clinical challenges of medical treatment for HIV+ Injecting Drug Users (IDUs), including treatment for co-infections, drug dependency and overdose.

The community session opened with a statement about the situation of IDUs in need of treatment in Ukraine by Konstantin Lezhentsev.

KonstantinLezhentsev.pdf (524.96 kB)

Lucas Wiessing from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) gave an overview on the European data.

Lucas Wiessing.pdf (1.56 MB)

Philip Bruggmann from ARUD Zurich presented the Swiss *One-stop-shop* care concept as it is practised in Switzerland. The model provides HIV care, viral hepatitis therapy, primary health care, mental health, substitution, prescription, heroin provision and social work under one roof. Adherence is under control, DOT/DAART are possible, the centre has a good overview on all ongoing therapies and reaches out the otherwise unreachable patients.

PhilipBruggmann.pdf (1.87 MB)

Rainer Weber from the Zurich University Hospital presented State-of-Art and unmet medical needs for treating HIV+ IDUs. New infections in this population are very low, since syringe programmes operate all over the country, including all prisons. Mortality is still higher in the IDU population under treatment compared to non-IDU. The common label IDU includes in fact 4 different categories (former IDUs, in opiate substitution, intermittent IDU/OSTP, active IDU). Fluctuations are very frequent. Former IDUs and OSTP patients have similar adherence and treatment outcomes as never IDUs, while the other categories are slightly below. Weber concluded that HIV-infected IDU need comprehensive interdisciplinary long-term strategies that integrate treatment of addiction, HIV infection, as well as psychosocial and somatic complications of injecting drug use. Programmes aiming at opioid abstinence or stable opiate substitution are important prerequisites for the initiation, maintenance and success of antiretroviral therapy.

Rainer Weber.pdf (646.80 kB)

The session concluded that the Swiss model represents the best available care standard for this difficult to reach population. Clinicians, institutions, researchers and the community should join forces and disseminate the model to other countries with IDU-epidemics.

Consult the Satellite program

Flyer EATG satellite-EACS.pdf (129.17 kB)