High prevalence of hepatitis C associated with familial history of hepatitis in a small town of south Brazil: efficiency of the rapid test for epidemiological survey

Abstract

This report describes a cross-sectional survey on the prevalence of hepatitis C antibodies (anti-HCV) in Tamboara, a small community in the northwest area from Paraná State, south of Brazil with a high rate of accumulated detection for HCV. Eight hundred and sixteen residents (17.87% from all the population), independently of the age and time living in Tamboara were included in this study by an epidemiologic questionnaire and by testing for anti-HCV. The rapid immuno-chromatographic test was applied for detection of HCV antibodies. The anti-HCV prevalence by rapid test was 4.28%. The median age for positive and negative test was 60.49 ± 14.14 and 41.67 ± 20.25, respectively (p < 0.001). By multivariate analysis, only familial history of hepatitis (p = 0.001; OR = 6.41; CI 95% = 2.08-19.78) and age (p = 0.007; OR 1.06;95% CI = 1.02-1.10) showed statistical significance for positive anti-HCV. The rapid test sensitivity and specificity were 100% and 92.7% respectively, with an accuracy of 95.8% (95% CI = 91-100). These findings demonstrated a high prevalence of anti-HCV in Tamboara. The familial history of hepatitis was a significant risk factor to the infection and HCV rapid test showed to be accurate and feasible for epidemiological surve

Hepatitis C screening, diagnosis, and cascade of care among people aged > 40 years in Brasilia, Brazil

“…To achieve this target, 90% of people with chronic hepatitis C need to be diagnosed and 80% of them must be treated [29]. Moreover, such target can be achieved through the use of RTs for HCV infection screening [22,28]. Meanwhile, the gaps identified in the cascade of care of patients in this study suggest the urgent need to develop an effective strategy for the screening, diagnosis, and treatment of HCV infection, which is aimed at eliminating the disease and reducing related mortality.…”

“…Both the WHO and the Brazilian Ministry of Health have established sensitivity (> 98% versus > 97%) and specificity (99.4% versus 99.4%) criteria to assess the quality of RTs for hepatitis C [22]. The Alere® rapid anti-HCV tests (Standard Diagnostics, South Korea; distributed by Bioeasy Diagnostica Ltda., Belo Horizonte and São Paulo, Brazil) were used in this study, and their sensitivity and specificity (100 and 92.7%, respectively) were compatible with the minimum criteria required [22,23].…”

“…RTs were performed, and a qualified biochemical professional interpreted the results in compliance with quality and safety standards. The tests were conducted according to manufacturer instructions [21,22].…”

A cross-sectional study on dental surgeons’ immune status against hepatitis B virus in the Public Health System

“…The laboratory method used in this study was the immunochromatographic technology-based rapid assay due to its suitability for the investigation and screening at the population level, in endemic areas or in vulnerable groups. This method's advantages are the low cost, high specificity, rapid test processing, easy technical features, diagnosis efficiency, high patient's acceptance, and no need for a laboratory infrastructure [38][39][40] . Further, we chose this technology based on the WHO's guidelines to track the HBV antigen and antibody levels and to eliminate hepatitis B as one of the main threats to public health 3 .…”