Current characteristics of patients with hepatitis C virus: results from an automated alert system.

ABSTRACT

Alert systems are proving to be useful to increase hepatitis C virus (HCV) diagnoses and facilitating access to antiviral treatment. Since 2020, our health department has had a fully automated alert system set up at the Microbiology Department. In this study, we present the results of the 2022-2023 period to assess the current characteristics of HCV diagnosed patients. In addition, we analyzed, through a comparison, whether a limitation that we noticed during the 2020-2021 period (whose results were published) is still present. This limitation consists of that 24.2% (34/134) of those candidates for antiviral treatment were not treated because they could not be located or refused treatment. During the 2022-2023 period, 188 new cases were diagnosed, and 75% (141/188) were treated. The comparison of both periods showed that in 2022-2023, the rate of treatment rejection by the patient was significantly lower (1.4% vs 14.5%, p < 0.05) and, therefore, the rate of antiviral treatment increased (75% vs 58.9%, p < 0.05). These results suggest that our alert system is useful and efficient for the diagnosis and treatment of HCV.