Prevalence of Hepatitis C Virus among Hospitalized Patients in a Tertiary Hospital in Italy: The Basis for a National Screening Assessment Model?

Free-of-charge HCV screening in some key populations and in 1969–1989 birth cohorts have been funded in Italy as the first step to diagnosing individuals unaware of their infection. The aim of this study is to use available in-hospital routine screening data to understand the inpatients HCV screening in a region of North Italy. A retrospective search of in-hospital patients tested for HCV-antibody (HCV-Ab) from January 2017 to the end of December 2022, was conducted according to age categories (older than 76 years, birth group 1947-1968; birth group1969-1989 and two other categories with patients younger than 33 years) using the TriNetX network. Of 42,805 in-hospital patients tested, 1,297 (3.03%) resulted HCV-Ab positive. The proportion decreased from 2017 to 2022 (from 2.03% to 0.36%) years). The higher prevalence of HCV-Ab was in patients older than 76 years (5.3%) while, the lowest was in the younger birth cohort (2000-2022, 0.16%). Of 1,297 patients found HCV-Ab positive, only 198 (15.3%) were tested for the presence of HCV RNA. Although the birth cohort 1969-1989 had a lower seroprevalence (1.5%), they represented the most affected age group with 44.4% of HCV RNA positivity. The in-hospital HCV screening including birth cohort 1947-1989 could be a valuable option respect to the screening for birth group 1969-1989 in the general population. Since a high proportion of patients were not tested for HCV RNA during hospitalization, reflex testing promptly ascertaining an active infection could facilitate linkage to care to stop the burden of HCV.