ABSTRACT
Background and Aims: The health emergency caused by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has negatively impacted the management of HCV infection, potentially jeopardizing the achievement of the goal of eliminate hepatitis C by 2030. To take advantage of the current sanitary situation, associated screening for HCV and SARS-CoV-2 infection have been carried out. We decided to propose HCV screening also to people who undergone SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. [Formula presented] Methods: Screening for hepatitis C was carried out by finger-prick test to search for HCV antibodies. It took place in the minutes following the SARS-CoV-2 vaccination, in two different vaccination centers of the Campania region, and in two different time frames. In the period 1 May-20 July 2021, screening for hepatitis C was offered to the general population who got the vaccine at the Fisciano (province of Salerno) vaccination center. In the period 20 September-11 October 2021, screening for hepatitis C was offered to the general population who underwent vaccination at the San Leonardo Hospital (Castellammare di Stabia, metropolitan city of Naples). In both sites, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, or Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines were used. Results: Out of 5095 people who underwent vaccination at the Fisciano vaccination center, 1952 (38,3%, average age 41,6 years) performed screening for hepatitis C. 5 of these (0,25%, average age 54,2 years) resulted HCV-Ab positive;all 5 were aware of their condition;4 had previous treatment;1 (0,05%) was found to have active HCV infection. Out of 2202 people vaccinated at the San Leonardo Hospital, 1207 (54,8%, average age 43,1 years) underwent screening for hepatitis C. Among these, 9 (0,7%, average age 54,3) resulted positive. 5/9 tested negative on the confirmatory test;2/9 were aware of their condition and had previous treatment;1 subject (0,08%) was found to have active HCV infection;1 subject is awaiting the results at time of writing. In both sites a consistent percentage of people refused the HCV-Ab test. Moreover, the prevalence of HCV-Ab positivity and HCV active infection was found to be lower than the national data. Frequent reasons for refusing the test were lack of knowledge of the disease, fear of a positive result, and distrust in the test's effectiveness. Someone refused the test because vaccination was considered a particularly stressful event. The low prevalence of HCV infection found in these projects could be at least partly attributable to the under-participation of the elderly, as at the time the screenings were carried out most of them had probably already received the expected doses of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. Conclusions: In conclusion, we believe that SARS-CoV-2 vaccination could be an opportunity to screen for HCV infection, but to maximize the benefits of this screening, the characteristics of the subjects to be tested should be reconsidered, by focusing particularly on the elderly population.
ABSTRACT
Background: SARS-CoV-2-induced severe acute respiratory syndrome is associated with high mortality in the general population;however, the data on chronic haemodialysis (HD) patients are currently scarce.