Emergency department targeted screening for hepatitis C does not improve linkage to care

Table 1 Screening results of hepatitis C virus-positive patients

Patient ID	OraQuick®	anti-HCV	Anti-HCV levels
84	Positive
195	Positive
263	Positive	Positive	11 <
267	Positive	Positive	11 <
333	Positive
348	Positive	Positive	11 <
373	Positive	Positive	11 <
374	Positive	Positive	11 <
410	Positive	Positive	11 <
413	Negative	Positive	1.35
422	Negative	Positive	9.67
424	Positive	Positive	11 <
426	Positive
428	Positive	Positive	11 <
435	Positive
490		Positive	11 <
515		Positive	11 <

Seventeen patients screened positively on either OraQuick^® or serum anti-hepatitis C virus antibodies. HCV: Hepatitis C virus.

Table 2 Patient characteristics

	HCV negative (% of patients, n = 524)	HCV positive (% of patients, n = 17)	P value
Males	52	93.8	0.001
Born in the former USSR	77.9	47.1	0.003
PWID	1.1	82.4	< 0.001
Served time in prison	8.6	64.7	< 0.001
HIV	1.7	23.5	< 0.001
MSM	8.4	0.0	0.212
Received blood products prior to 1992	8.4	0.0	0.213
Mother with HCV infection	2.1	0.0	0.546
Received organ transplant prior to 1992	0.2	0.0	0.857
Chronic kidney disease	7.1	5.9	0.85

HCV: Hepatitis C virus; USSR: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; PWID: People who inject drugs; HIV: Human immunodeficiency virus; MSM: Men who have sex with men.

Table 3 Multivariate analysis of risk factors for hepatitis C virus

	Univariate logistic regression			Multivariate logistic regression
Variable	Exp (b)	95%CI	P value	Exp (b)	95%CI	P value
Gender (female vs male)	0.072	0.009-0.55	0.011	0.578	0.043-7.71	0.679
PWID (yes vs no)	402.889	91.3-1777.1	< 0.001	188.95	33.88-1053.82	< 0.001
Served time in prison (yes vs no)	19.515	6.89-55.25	< 0.001	4.076	0.623-26.67	0.143
HIV (yes vs no)	17.6	4.8-64.6	< 0.001	5.32	0.242-116.78	0.289
Born in the former USSR (yes vs no)	0.25	0.09-0.67	0.006	0.562	0.092-3.42	0.532

Dependent variable: Hepatitis C virus positive. PWID: People who inject drugs; HIV: Human immunodeficiency virus; USSR: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.