Automating the approach to monitoring blood-borne virus test coverage among people in drug services in Scotland

Scotland has set a target of eliminating HIV transmission by 2030 and HCV by 2024. Effective BBV testing coverage among people who use drugs is central to HIV and HCV elimination goals, and universal opt-out BBV testing in drug services by the end of 2024 is a key policy objective for the Scottish Government. People with a history of having used drugs are estimated to account for 85% of HCV diagnoses in Scotland. Scotland has also experienced a re-emergence of HIV in Glasgow, where low testing rates contributed to the delayed detection of the outbreak. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on BBV testing in prisons and drug services in Scotland. In addition to testing, the pandemic has also had an impact on the delivery of face-to-face to research, including bio-behavioural surveys which have previously been used to measure testing coverage. To monitor progress towards to HIV transmission and HCV elimination goals, we need more regular surveillance to monitor progress towards testing coverage policy objectives. We are proposing a data linkage exercise, involving linkage of laboratory HIV/HCV test data to administrative data on people accessing drug services in Scotland to estimate national HCV testing coverage and coverage for NHS GGC (the location of the HIV outbreak) from 2010-June2024. NOTE : Kirsten Trayner was the lead analyst on the previous analysis and thus knowledge and skills to update and extend these analyses. Senior input from Prof Hutchinson and Dr Palmateer will give their input in kind as relates to their already funded time on other grants with PHS.