HBV continuum of care using community- and hospital-based screening interventions in Senegal: Results from the PROLIFICA programme.

Background & Aims: Strategies to implement HBV screening and treatment are critical to achieve HBV elimination but have been inadequately evaluated in sub-Saharan Africa (sSA).

Methods: We assessed the feasibility of screen-and-treat interventions in 3 real-world settings (community, workplace, and hospital) in Senegal. Adult participants were screened using a rapid HBsAg point-of-care test. The proportion linked to care, the proportion who had complete clinical staging (alanine transaminase [ALT], viral load, and FibroScan®), and the proportion eligible for treatment were compared among the 3 intervention groups.

Results: In 2013-2016, a total of 3,665 individuals were screened for HBsAg in the community (n = 2,153) and in workplaces (n = 1,512); 199/2,153 (9.2%) and 167/1,512 (11%) were HBsAg-positive in the community and workplaces, respectively. In the hospital setting (outpatient clinics), 638 HBsAg-positive participants were enrolled in the study. All infected participants were treatment naïve. Linkage to care was similar among community-based (69.9%), workplace-based (69.5%), and hospital-based interventions (72.6%,  = 0.617). Of HBV-infected participants successfully linked to care, full clinical staging was obtained in 47.5% (66/139), 59.5% (69/116), and 71.1% (329/463) from the community, workplaces, and hospitals, respectively ( <0.001). The proportion eligible for treatment (EASL criteria) differed among community- (9.1%), workplace- (30.4%), and hospital-based settings (17.6%,  = 0.007). Acceptability of antiviral therapy, adherence, and safety at 1 year were very good.

Conclusions: HBV screen-and-treat interventions are feasible in non-hospital and hospital settings in Senegal. However, the continuum of care is suboptimal owing to limited access to full clinical staging. Improvement in access to diagnostic services is urgently needed in sSA.

Lay Summary: Hepatitis B infection is highly endemic in Senegal. Screening for infection can be done outside hospitals, in communities or workplaces. However, the hepatitis B continuum of care is suboptimal in Senegal and needs to be simplified to scale-up diagnosis and treatment coverage.