TY  - JOUR
TI  - Patients Lost after Anti-HCV-Positive Finding in a Tertiary Care University Hospital: Increased Awareness and Action is Necessary to Eradicate HCV
AB  - Objectives: Though there is a global effort to eradicate hepatitis C infection (HCV), several obstacles remain. Many patients infected with the virus are not detected or go untreated. The goal of this study was to identify any barriers to treatment and anydifficulties contributing to the elimination of HCV infection at a tertiary care university hospital.Methods: This was a retrospective review. The hospital data system was searched for records of patients admitted to the hospitalfor any reason from between 2013 and 2018 who were screened for viral markers and determined to be anti-HCV positive. Thefollow-up performed was then analyzed.Results: Viral marker testing was requested for 65,853 patients during the study period. Of those, 64.735 (98.3%) were found tobe anti-HCV negative and 1118 (1.7%) were anti-HCV positive. In all, 392 (35.06%) were detected in the gastroenterology department, 417 (37.3%) were patients in the infectious diseases department, and 309 (27.64%) were identified in other clinics, includingemergency services, the blood bank, and others. There were 30/392 (7.65%) patients admitted to the gastroenterology clinic whodeclined a biopsy and/or treatment. In other clinics, 88/309 (28.5%) patients were identified who were not treated for HCV and notfollowed up because they were not referred to the related specialty department.Conclusion: It was determined that there was a significant gap in referring patients to the appropriate specialized departmentfollowing an anti-HCV positive finding and thus to appropriate follow-up and treatment programs.
AU  - Sezgin, Orhan
AU  - ÜÇBİLEK, Enver
AU  - ATEŞ, Fehmi
AU  - AKKUZU, MUSTAFA ZANYAR
AU  - ALTINTAS, ENGIN
AU  - Ozdogan, Osman
AU  - Yılmaz, İbrahim
AU  - YARAŞ, Serkan
DO  - 10.14744/SEMB.2019.46656
PY  - 2019
JO  - Şişli Etfal Hastanesi Tıp Bülteni
VL  - 53
IS  - 4
SN  - 1302-7123
SP  - 366
EP  - 370
DB  - TRDizin
UR  - http://search/yayin/detay/345768
ER  -