Leveraging corona virus disease 2019 vaccination to promote hepatitis C screening

Health care initiatives, such as hepatitis C virus (HCV) screening, have been greatly overshadowed by the corona virus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic. However, COVID‐19 vaccination programs also provide an opportunity to engage with a high volume of people in a health care setting. We collaborated...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Aaron Vanderhoff, David Smookler, Mia J. Biondi, Scott Enman, Tintin Fuliang, Sana Mahmood, Agustina Crespi, Maria Marquez, Rafique Van Uum, Lucy You, Brett Wolfson‐Stofko, Renee Logan, Erin LeDrew, Hemant Shah, Harry Janssen, Camelia Capraru, Elisa Venier, Jordan J. Feld
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wolters Kluwer Health/LWW 2023-01-01
Series:Hepatology Communications
Online Access:http://journals.lww.com/10.1002/hep4.2101
Description
Summary:Health care initiatives, such as hepatitis C virus (HCV) screening, have been greatly overshadowed by the corona virus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic. However, COVID‐19 vaccination programs also provide an opportunity to engage with a high volume of people in a health care setting. We collaborated with a large COVID vaccination center to offer HCV point‐of‐care testing followed by dried blood spot collection for HCV RNA. Additionally, this opportunity was used to evaluate the practical significance of a 5‐minute version of the OraQuick HCV antibody test in lieu of the standard 20‐minute test. We tested 2317 individuals; 31 were HCV antibody positive and six were RNA positive of which four were treated and reached sustained virological response. Over a third of those surveyed said they would not have participated had the test required 20 minutes. Conclusion: Colocalizing HCV testing and linkage to care at a COVID vaccination clinic was found to be highly feasible; furthermore, a shortened antibody test greatly improves the acceptance of testing.
ISSN:2471-254X