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

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. Both patients with a positive test were male, below the age of 54, with a previous history of intravenous drug abuse, a low level of education, and who had had at least one experience of unprotected sex. We scheduled a visit for treatment evaluation for every positive patient who was not on treatment. Neither of the two de novo patients and 3/6 (50%) patients who were aware of their anti-HCV positivity came to the follow-up visit. Our study shows that a screening strategy for HCV infection in ED is feasible and that about 1% of patients attending the ED and who are unaware of their conditions are anti-HCV positive. Moreover, a non-negligible proportion of subjects, though aware of their condition, was not linked to any hepatologic center.