Towards a safe hospital: hepatitis C in-hospital micro-elimination program (HCV-HELP study)

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Scarce data are available on in-hospital hepatitis C virus (HCV) micro-elimination strategies. This pilot study was prospectively conducted to assess the outcomes of HCV in-hospital micro-elimination program (HCV-HELP) in a single center in Taiwan. METHODS: The study included the HCV reflex test for plans A (hospital personnel), B (outpatient surveillance), C (a call-back system for anti-HCV+ patients), and D (surveillance of cancer patients prior to chemotherapy). The primary outcome measurement was that > 80% of eligible patients were enrolled in linkage-to-treat; the secondary outcome measurement was the surveillance efficacy. RESULTS: We recruited 930, 6072, 2376 and 233 participants into plans A, B, C, and D, respectively, from Oct 2020 to May 2021. The anti-HCV-seropositivity prevalences were 0.22% for plan A, 4.3% for B, and 3.9% for D. Two staff members were identified as HCV-viremic in plan A; these staff members successfully achieved a sustained virological response (SVR). We identified 39, 95 and 2 HCV-viremic patients in plans B, C, and D, respectively. Of these 138 HCV-viremic patients, 135 (97.8%) received direct-acting antiviral therapy, and 134 achieved SVR. Two 4-month phases were stratified to compare efficacies in the liver clinic. In the late phase, the adjusted number of HCV-viremic patients was 4.36/10,000 outpatient visits (90/200,689), which was 3.18-fold higher than that of the early phase (1.37/10,000 outpatient visits [30/212,658], odds ratio 3.18; 95% confidence interval 2.10–4.81, p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: HCV micro-elimination is achievable at the hospital level as per the structured HCV-HELP study.