Directly observed therapy with sofosbuvir/ledipasvir for 8 weeks is highly effective in treatment-naïve, precirrhotic genotype 1 patients with borderline compliance receiving opioid agonist therapy

An important subgroup of people who inject drugs (PWID) receives opioid agonist therapy (OAT) under direct observation of a physician or nurse at a low-threshold drug treatment facility or pharmacy on a daily basis. Most of these patients suffer from psychiatric comorbidities and are reluctant or unable to go to specialized hepatitis centers. Our hypothesis was that chronic hepatitis C in these difficult-to-treat patients could be optimally managed if modern, interferon-free regimens were applied together with OAT under direct observation of a physician or nurse at a low-threshold drug treatment facility.