Two years have passed since the Department of Gastroenterology, Microbiology and Emergency Medicine of Torre Cardenas University Hospital launched a hepatitis C screening program in the emergency department. Since then, more than 15,000 patients have been tested for hepatitis C, 55 patients diagnosed with chronic hepatitis C virus but unaware of their infection status. Most of them have been treated and cured of the infection.
According to the data obtained at this time, Hepatitis C virus infection rate among emergency department visits is 0.4%, twice the estimate for the general population.
Therefore, hepatitis C screening in emergency rooms andIt’s a strategy that “works” Improving the diagnostic yield of hepatitis C virus infection in the process of eliminating hepatitis C virus infection.
Spain leads
Spain could be one of the first countries to meet WHO target Towards the elimination of hepatitis C by 2030. This requires increased screening strategies because hepatitis C is an asymptomatic disease and most infected patients are unaware of their infection status. The screening strategy implemented by Torre Cardenas is undoubtedly necessary to achieve the goal of eliminating hepatitis C in our country.
Torre Cardenas University Hospital Working towards the goal of eliminating hepatitis CThis is evidenced by the implementation of the FOCUS project, a screening program in the emergency department, which was the first Andalusian hospital to be enrolled.
Said item, Led by Dr. Marta CasadoThe project was launched two years ago by the hospital’s hepatologist and head of research, president of the Andalusian Society of Digestive Pathology, under the coordination of Dr. Anny Camelo, a microbiologist at the Provincial Reference Hospital of Almeria.