Should Emergency Departments Screen for HCV?

Emergency departments (EDs) should screen all patients for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, according to a recent study.

While the CDC has recommended that all EDs screen patients for HCV, implementation of the recommendation is controversial.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

RELATED CONTENT
Study: Hepatitis C Is a Cardiovascular Risk Factor
AASLD Hepatitis C Guidelines Now Include Newer Antivirals
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

To better understand the prevalence of diagnosed and undiagnosed HCV in EDs, researchers conducted a cross-sectional seroprevalence study using blood samples and self-reported health information from 924 ED patients 18-64 years old. Patients were tested for HCV using the Biochain ELISA kit for Human Hepatitis C Virus.  

Overall, HCV antibody was detected in 128 of the participants (14%) and, of these, 44 (34%) self-reported a history of HCV or hepatitis infection.

“EDs are likely to be uniquely important for HCV screening, and logistical challenges to ED screening should be overcome. Birth cohort screening would have missed many patients, suggesting the need for complementary screening strategies applied to an expanded age range,” they concluded.

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Lyons MS, Kunnathur VA, Rouster SD, et al. Prevalence of diagnosed and undiagnosed hepatitis c in a midwestern urban emergency department. Clin Infect Dis. February, 2016 [epub ahead of print]. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciw073.