HCV among The Miriam Hospital and Rhode Island Hospital Adult ED Patients.

ABSTRACT: The Emergency Department (ED) appears to be an ideal place to conduct hepatitis C virus (HCV) screening. We aimed to estimate the prevalence of prior HCV test positivity among adult (18-64 year-old) patients at The Miriam Hospital and Rhode Island Hospital EDs, as well as the undiagnosed HCV antibody seroprevalence among patients with any self-reported injection or non-injection drug use who agreed to undergo rapid HCV antibody testing. The prevalence of prior HCV test positivity among 8,500 adult ED patients was approximately 4.6%, and the previously undiagnosed HCV antibody seroprevalence among 621 drug-using adult ED patients was 1.6%. Among the ten ED patients with a positive rapid HCV antibody test not previously diagnosed, eight were born after 1965 and six never had injected drugs.

SUBMITTER: Merchant RC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4349365 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature