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HCV Screening Program in a Large Birth Cohort

Open Forum Infect Dis; ePub 2018 Mar 26; Cornett, et al

For persons born between 1945 and 1965 and tested for hepatitis C virus (HCV), seropositivity was above 6% and twice as high as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated prevalence in this birth cohort. The retrospective cohort study of patients in the 1945-1965 birth cohort tested for HCV in a large emergency department (ED) in New Jersey from June 1, 2006, through December 31, 2016. Researchers found:

  • 3,046 patients (55.8% white, 17.9% black) were screened for HCV.
  • 192 (6.3%) patients were antibody positive.
  • Of 167 patients with HCV VL testing results, 43% had a positive viral load.
  • On multivariate analysis, black race and Medicaid insurance were independently associated with a positive HCV viral load.

Citation:

Cornett JK, Bodiwala V, Razuk V, Shukla D, Narayanan N. Results of a hepatitis C virus screening program of the 1945-1965 birth cohort in a large emergency department in New Jersey. [Published online ahead of print March 26, 2018]. Open Forum Infect Dis. doi:10.1093/ofid/ofy065.