Hepatitis C screening in the Emergency Department of a large hospital in southern Italy: results of a pilot study.

Hepatitis C screening in the Emergency Department of a large hospital in southern Italy: results of a pilot study. Infez Med. 2019 Mar 01;27(1):32-39 Authors: Gentile I, Pinchera B, Viceconte G, Crispo M, Simeone D, Scotto R, Zappulo E, Maraolo AE, Paladino F, Tortora R, Di Costanzo GG, Buonomo A, Borgia G Abstract Around 71 million people worldwide are chronically infected with hepatitis C. HCV prevalence among individuals born in the United States between 1945 and 1965 is estimated to be about 3%. In Italy, about 2% of the population is chronically infected with HCV. Since chronic HCV infection is often asymptomatic, many patients require access to medical care only in an advanced phase of the disease. The best strategy for bringing out hidden chronic HCV infection remains uncertain. The aim of the study was to evaluate the feasibility of an FDA-approved rapid salivary, point-of-care (POC) assay for anti-HCV, performed in patients aged between 45 and 80 years old who were referred to the emergency department of a large hospital in southern Italy and were all unaware of their HCV serostatus. In all, 966 patients were interviewed during the study period. Among them, 220 patients were enrolled. Notably, 25/588 (4%) reported to be anti-HCV positive. Of these, 19 were already being treated with direct-acting antivirals (DAA). Among the enrolled patients, two (0.9%) tested anti-HCV positive and 218 (99.1%) were negative at screening. Bot...
Source: Infezioni in Medicina - Category: Infectious Diseases Tags: Infez Med Source Type: research