HCV microelimination strategies: An interventional study in diagnosed patients without access to the system.
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) one-step diagnosis improves recovery in patients with active infection. However, patients with previous anti-HCV+ may be excluded. We aimed to identify and retrieve non-referred or lost-to-follow-up HCV-infected patients. All anti-HCV+ patients seen in our hospital between 2013 and 2018 were included. In the first phase, we identified anti-HCV+ patients who were not referred to the Gastroenterology Unit (GU) or lost-to-follow-up. In the second phase, recovered patients were invited for a one-step visit for liver evaluation. A total of 1330 anti-HCV+ patients were included: 21.7% had not been referred to GU, and 23.1% were lost-to-follow-up. In the second phase, 49.6% of patients were contacted, and 92.8% attended a medical consultation: 62.7% had active infection, 92.2% were treated, and 86.5% achieved SVR (ITT). We concluded that screening microbiological data and referring unidentified patients with active HCV infection directly to specialists is an effective tool in achieving HCV microelimination.
['Guerra Veloz|María Fernanda|MF|0000-0001-9708-8245', 'Del Pino Bellido|Pilar|P|', 'Cordero Ruiz|Patricia|P|', 'Vega Rodriguez|Francisco|F|', 'Bellido Muñoz|Francisco|F|', 'Ramirez de Arellano|Encarnación|E|', 'Caunedo Álvarez|Angel|A|', 'Pascual Hernandez|Alvaro|A|', 'Carmona Soria|Isabel|I|']
D000998:Antiviral Agents D016174:Hepacivirus D006526:Hepatitis C D018937:Hepatitis C Antibodies D006801:Humans D008403:Mass Screening
microelimination Hepatitis C virus retrieval positive HCV-antibody