Understanding current antenatal Hepatitis C testing and care in maternity services in England

OBJECTIVES

Universal opt-out antenatal screening for Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is not currently recommened and it is recommended that maternity services offer risk-based testing. We aimed to investigate antenatal HCV testing and adherence to testing guidance.

METHODS

A cross-sectional survey was circulated to maternity service providers between November-December 2020 which included testing policy, training for healthcare staff, and management of women found to be HCV positive. Descriptive data are presented.

RESULTS

75 questionnaires were returned, representing 48 % of English maternity service providers. 87 % of providers reported offering antenatal HCV risk-based testing. Risk factors used to identify pregnant women for testing varied. Less than 15 % of respondents considered women that were ever homeless or with history of incarceraton or from higher HCV prevalence areas as high risk.

CONCLUSIONS

Current antenatal HCV testing practices are inadequate and HCV infection likely goes undiagnosed in pregnancy, especially among vulnerable population groups. In the absence of universal antenatal screening, re-framing antenatal HCV risk-based testing and management as a quality improvement initiative and developing HCV specific pathway guidance for maternity units is required.

Chronic hepatitis C elimination prison initiative: HCV-intensive test and treat, a whole prisoner population HCV test-and-treat program in England

Background and Aim

Prison residents are at high risk for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. HCV test-and-treat initiatives within prisons provide an opportunity to engage with prison residents and achieve HCV micro-elimination. The aim of the prison HCV-intensive test and treat initiative was to screen over 95% of all prison residents for HCV infection within a defined number of days determined by the size of the prison population and to initiate treatment within 7-14 days of a positive HCV RNA diagnosis.

Methods

An HCV-intensive test and treat toolkit was developed based on learnings from pilot HCV-intensive test and treat events. From January 2020 to September 2021, 13 HCV-intensive test and treat events took place at prisons in England selected based on high levels of reception blood-borne virus testing and good access to peers from The Hepatitis C Trust.

Results

Among a total of 8487 residents, 8139 (95.9%) underwent testing for HCV. Across the 13 prisons included, HCV antibody and RNA prevalence was 8.2% and 1.5%, respectively. The treatment initiation rate among HCV RNA-positive individuals (n = 124) was 79.0%.

Conclusion

The HCV-intensive test and treat initiative presented here provides a feasible and rapid test-and-treat process to achieve HCV elimination within individual prisons. The HCV-intensive test and treat toolkit can be adapted for rapid HCV testing and treatment events at other prisons in the United Kingdom and worldwide.