Background
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a leading cause of advanced liver disease and death. In the United States about 3.5 million people are living with HCV, but only 50% are aware of the infection, 16% are prescribed treatment, and only 9% achieve sustained viral response. The World Health Organization published an HCV elimination goal for 2030 that strives to achieve a 65% reduction in HCV-related deaths and 90% reduction in transmission. An important step toward this goal is micro-elimination at local hospitals by addressing care gaps in the HCV care cascade.
Figure 1
Methods
We created a retrospective cohort of patients who tested positive for HCV antibody (HCV Ab+) between 2016 and 2018 at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts. We assessed achievement of care cascade steps including HCV viral load (VL) testing, linkage to care, treatment initiation, and sustained viral response (SVR). We also assessed patient demographics, clinical factors and HCV risk factors. We used STATA/IC 14.1 to conduct bivariate analysis to identify factors associated with loss to follow-up across each care cascade step.
Results
A total of 24,308 HCV antibody tests were done during this timeframe, of which 5% (n=1,222) were HCV Ab+. After excluding duplicate tests, 1,041 unique patients with HCV Ab+ were included. This cohort had a mean age of 47 years and were 61% male, 66% white, 72% on public insurance, 12% HIV-positive, 13% HCV treatment-experienced. The most frequent HCV risk factor was injection drug use, occurring in 64% of patients. Of patients with HCV Ab+, 76% (n=791) were tested for an HCV VL, of which 50% (n=393) had detectable VL and 50% (n=398) had undetectable VL. Of the patients with a detectable VL, 58% (n=226) were linked with care. Following care linkage, 69% (n=155) initiated treatment, of which 90% (n=139) completed treatment, of which 97% (n=135) achieved SVR (Figure 1). Factors that were significantly associated with getting a VL test and linking to care included private insurance, HIV co-infection, absence of intravenous drug use and cirrhosis; however, these factors were not significantly associated with achieving subsequent steps.
Conclusion
Assessment of the HCV care cascade at our hospital allowed us to identify clear care gaps and areas needing improvement towards a local micro-elimination.
Disclosures
All Authors: No reported disclosures
