Hospital-based screening outperforms primary care screening as a means of achieving hepatitis C virus micro-elimination.

Aim: To assess the respective performances of a HCV screening program in a hospital setting and a HCV screening model applied concomitantly in a primary care centre.

Methods: Adult patients consecutively admitted to hospital for ambulatory surgery were screened for anti-HCV antibodies (hospital screening cohort, HPSC), as were patients receiving blood tests for medical reasons in a primary care centre (primary care screening cohort, PCSC). Serum anti-HCV and HCV RNA levels were tested by ELISA and real-time PCR, respectively.

Results: Seroprevalence of HCV infection was 2.2 % in the HPSC and 1.4 % in the PCSC (p = 0.044). All viraemic patients (0.2 % in HPSC and 0.1 % in PCSC) were treated with direct-acting antivirals and 85.7 % experienced a sustained virological response.

Conclusions: Hospital-based HCV screening outperformed primary care-centered screening, significantly increasing HCV case findings.