A Programme of Hepatitis C Surveillance With Active Linkage to Care (HEAL) for Inpatients in Two Tertiary Hospitals in Jiangsu, China

ABSTRACT Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major public health burden in China, affecting more than 10 million individuals. We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a hospital‐based intervention programme for HCV Surveillance with linkage to care (HEAL) in a prospective cohort. The HEAL programme was carried out targeting inpatients from non‐infectious departments of two tertiary hospitals in Jiangsu, China. It consisted of an educational campaign to raise awareness of physicians from non‐IDs to promote HCV surveillance, a patient‐navigator‐centred clinical algorithm responsible for the efficient follow‐up of patients with positive HCV antibody, including comprehensive testing, diagnosis and treatment. We characterised the rate of linkage to HCV diagnosis, care and treatment during the pre‐intervention period (from 1 July 2016 and June 30, 2018) and after the intervention (from March 2019 to May 2021). During the pre‐intervention period, 89,303 (45.3%) out of 196,780 non‐ID inpatients were screened for anti‐HCV, and 631 patients were tested positive. One hundred and fifty‐six (24.7%) patients was followed up for HCV RNA confirmatory testing, and 58 (37.1%) of patients further were diagnosed with chronic HCV infection (CHC). Only 18 (31.3%) of the diagnosed patients with CHC were linked to hepatitis C clinics for treatment, 10 (55.6%) patients received antiviral regimen. Among them, two (11.1%) received DAA treatment, while eight (44.4%) adopted peginterferon/ribavirin regimen. During the intervention period, 232,275 patients were hospitalised in non‐infectious department and 151,203 (65.1%) were screened for anti‐HCV. Of these, 960 patients tested positive for HCV antibodies, resulting in a prevalence of anti‐HCV positivity of 0.63%. Six hundred and seventy (69.8%) patients were enrolled, and 100% were followed up for HCV RNA confirmatory testing. Two hundred and ninety‐one (43.4%) individuals with active HCV were identified. Two hundred and thirty‐eight (81.8%) of HCV‐infected individuals were linked to HCV care, and 157 (65.9%) were linked to treatment. Compared to the pre‐intervention period, there was a 2.61‐fold increase in the percentage of patients linked to care and a 5.94‐fold increase in the proportion of patients who started DAAs therapy. This HEAL programme achieved enhanced HCV Surveillance with linkage to care, which has been demonstrated as an effective strategy in the hospital setting to improve the hepatitis C care continuum by identifying inpatients unaware of their HCV status and facilitating their access to HCV treatment.