Cent Eur J Public Health 2012, 20(3):223-225 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a3747

Referral of Intravenous Drug Users for Antiviral Treatment: Effectiveness of Hepatitis C Case-finding Programmes

Gábor Gazdag1, Gergely Horváth2, Olga Szabó3, Gabor S. Ungvari4
1 Consultation-Liaison Psychiatric Service, Szent István and Szent László Hospitals, Budapest, Hungary
2 Focal Point for Drugs, National Epidemiological Center, Budapest, Hungary
3 Hepatology Outpatient Clinic, Szent István and Szent László Hospitals, Budapest, Hungary
4 University of Notre Dame Australia, Marian Centre, Perth, Australia

Background: Hepatitis C infection (HCI) case-finding programmes aim to identify infected persons in a well-defined population. This study assessed the effectiveness of three HCI case-finding programmes for intravenous drug users by examining the rate of their referral to antiviral treatment.

Methods: The Hepatology Outpatient Clinic of Szent László Hospital examines and treats all intravenous drug users who are found positive in HCI case-finding programmes in Budapest. The medical records of patients who visited the Hepatology Outpatient Clinic of Szent László Hospital between 1 January 2006 and 31 December 2008 were screened and records indicating a history of drug abuse were selected. These records were matched against the databases of the hepatitis case-finding programmes and the records that appeared in both datasets were analyzed.

Results: Of the 234 intravenous drug users identified as hepatitis C virus positive in the Budapest case-finding programmes, only 21 attended the Hepatology Outpatient Clinic of Szent László Hospital and only two started antiviral treatment, but their hepatitis C virus positive status had already been known at the time of screening.

Conclusion: In this study, not a single patient with drug abuse whose hepatitis C virus positive status was identified in one of the HCI case-finding programmes was referred for antiviral treatment.

Keywords: hepatitis C, intravenous drug users, screening programme

Received: November 29, 2011; Revised: June 18, 2012; Accepted: June 18, 2012; Published: September 1, 2012  Show citation

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Gazdag G, Horváth G, Szabó O, Ungvari GS. Referral of Intravenous Drug Users for Antiviral Treatment: Effectiveness of Hepatitis C Case-finding Programmes. Cent Eur J Public Health. 2012;20(3):223-225. doi: 10.21101/cejph.a3747. PubMed PMID: 23285525.
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