Point-of-care rapid testing for hepatitis C antibodies at New Zealand needle exchanges.

CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated the viability of administering rapid point-of-care HCV antibody tests to needle exchange clients by non-clinician frontline peer staff. The efficacy of point-of-care testing and its appropriateness for use in this context to identify HCV-exposed needle exchange clients was demonstrated by the high proportion of participants receiving a reactive result, the identification of viremic clients and their support into treatment. PMID: 33223551 [PubMed - in process]
Source: New Zealand Medical Journal - Category: General Medicine Tags: N Z Med J Source Type: research