Time matters: Point of care screening and streamlined linkage to care dramatically improves hepatitis C treatment uptake in prisoners in England

Zameer Mohamed (1) , Deyaa Al-Kurdi (2) , Margaret Nelson (2) , Yusuke Shimakawa (3) , Nowlan Selvapatt (1) , Janine Lacey (1) , Mark Thursz (1) , Maud Lemoine (1) , Ashley Brown (1)

1 Imperial College London
2 Auteur indépendant
3 Epidémiologie des Maladies Emergentes - Emerging Diseases Epidemiology

In England, opt-out dry blood spot prison screening for HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C (HCV) has been introduced to scale-up access to care. Recent advances in point-of-care HCV diagnostics provide an opportunity to improve diagnosis and treatment uptake. We compared the retention along and time intervals between each aspect of the HCV care continuum for an alternative rapid point-of-care-testing and simplified treatment strategy with existing national opt-out HCV dry blood spot testing and treatment at a large remand prison in West London.

Domaines: Santé publique et épidémiologie

Zameer Mohamed, Deyaa Al-Kurdi, Margaret Nelson, Yusuke Shimakawa, Nowlan Selvapatt, et al.. Time matters: Point of care screening and streamlined linkage to care dramatically improves hepatitis C treatment uptake in prisoners in England. International Journal of Drug Policy, 2020, 75, pp.102608. ⟨10.1016/j.drugpo.2019.102608⟩. ⟨pasteur-02875210⟩