The Prevalence of HCV Infection and Risk Factors in a Hospital- Based Population Screening, a First Step to the Micro-Elimination of HCV Infection in Medical Institutions from Romania - Results of the HepC ALERT Study

• Published in: Journal of gastrointestinal and liver diseases : JGLD 2020-12, Vol.29 (4), p.587-593
• Main Authors: Gheorghe, Liana, Iacob, Speranta, Csiki, Irma Eva, Huiban, Laura, Cojocaru, Monica, Cojocariu, Camelia, Nemteanu, Roxana, Girleanu, Irina, Sirli, Roxana, Singeap, Ana Maria, Pop, Corina, Dumitrascu, Dan L, Vadan, Roxana, Iacob, Razvan, Diculescu, Mircea, Trifan, Anca, Sporea, Ioan, Gheorghe, Cristian
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1841-8724; 1842-1121
• DOI: 10.15403/jgld-3084

Background and Aims: Elimination of hepatitis C worldwide is more feasible if micro-elimination screening strategies are adopted. We aimed to screen hepatitis C virus (HCV) in specific high-risk populations in certain sub-regions of Romania and link them to antiviral treatment. Methods: A multicenter prospective study was conducted among the hospitalized or ambulatory adult patients from March 2019 to March 2020 in more than 20 medical institutions from 4 Romanian cities (Bucharest, Iasi, Timisoara, Cluj-Napoca). A rapid diagnostic test for HCV diagnosis was performed to all admitted patients and the positive ones were sent to gastroenterology departments for confirming the active infection, staging and treatment prescription. Results: In total, 25,141 subjects signed the informed consent and were consequently enrolled into the study. The prevalence of anti-HCV antibodies was 1.39% (95%CI: 1.25-1.54) and increased with the number of risk factors presented by one subject. There was a positive association between the presence of anti-HCV antibodies and female gender (p