Leveraging corona virus disease 2019 vaccination to promote hepatitis C screening

Abstract

Health care initiatives, such as hepatitis C virus (HCV) screening, have been greatly overshadowed by the corona virus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic. However, COVID‐19 vaccination programs also provide an opportunity to engage with a high volume of people in a health care setting. We collaborated with a large COVID vaccination center to offer HCV point‐of‐care testing followed by dried blood spot collection for HCV RNA. Additionally, this opportunity was used to evaluate the practical significance of a 5‐minute version of the OraQuick HCV antibody test in lieu of the standard 20‐minute test. We tested 2317 individuals; 31 were HCV antibody positive and six were RNA positive of which four were treated and reached sustained virological response. Over a third of those surveyed said they would not have participated had the test required 20 minutes. Conclusion: Colocalizing HCV testing and linkage to care at a COVID vaccination clinic was found to be highly feasible; furthermore, a shortened antibody test greatly improves the acceptance of testing.