TY - JOUR
T1 - Awareness and Epidemiology of Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infections in Florida
AU - Thomas, Emmanuel
AU - Cheng, Wei Han
AU - Dylla, Douglas E.
AU - Marx, Steven E.
AU - Carabino, Jana
AU - Xu, Qingqing
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by AbbVie Inc. AbbVie sponsored the study; contributed to the design; participated in collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; and in writing, reviewing, and approval of the final version. AbbVie Inc. also funded the Rapid Service Fee for publication. No honoraria or payments were made for authorship.
Funding Information:
The authors would like to acknowledge Oscar A. Hayes for carrying out the statistical analysis and generating the study report; and Shivaji R. Manthena for performing the machine-learning prediction of treated and cured patients. This work was supported by AbbVie Inc. AbbVie sponsored the study; contributed to the design; participated in collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; and in writing, reviewing, and approval of the final version. AbbVie Inc. also funded the Rapid Service Fee for publication. No honoraria or payments were made for authorship. Medical writing assistance was provided by Brandy Menges, PhD, and Samantha D. Francis Stuart, PhD, of Fishawack Facilitate Ltd, part of Fishawack Health, and was funded by AbbVie Inc., North Chicago, IL. All named authors meet the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) criteria for authorship for this article, take responsibility for the integrity of the work, and have given their approval for this version to be published. No honoraria or payments were made for authorship. Emmanuel Thomas, Douglas E. Dylla, and Jana Carabino have made substantial contributions to the conception and design of the study and interpretation of the study results; Wei-Han Cheng, Steven E. Marx, and Qingqing Xu have made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, the acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of data; all authors have drafted the work and revised it critically for important intellectual content. Emmanuel Thomas: AbbVie: Scientific Advisory Boards, Gilead Sciences: Scientific Advisory Boards and Grant support, American Liver Foundation: National Board of Directors. Wei-Han Cheng, Douglas E. Dylla, Steven E. Marx, Jana Carabino, and Qingqing Xu: AbbVie employees and may own AbbVie stock/options. With permission, this study utilized de-identified data from two US laboratory datasets. Because the data were de-identified, no ethics committee approval was required. The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).
PY - 2022/2
Y1 - 2022/2
N2 - Introduction: Progress towards achieving hepatitis C virus (HCV) elimination in Florida has been hampered by barriers to screening, linkage to care, and treatment. This study aims to describe the HCV care cascade and patient characteristics in Florida. Methods: This analysis combined HCV-related laboratory data and patient characteristics from two, large US laboratory datasets that included individuals tested for HCV antibody (Ab) and HCV ribonucleic acid (RNA) viral load between January 2015 and December 2019. A decline in sequential HCV RNA viral loads was used to impute HCV treatment. Machine-learning algorithms were used to identify cured patients. The actual number of individuals with HCV Ab screening, and the number and percentage of persons who were HCV RNA-positive and treated, were calculated. Results: The number of persons in Florida diagnosed as HCV RNA-positive was 31,659 in 2019. The number of individuals HCV Ab screened in 2019 was 1,024,379, an increase of 82.5% from 2015. The percentage of HCV Ab-positive individuals was 4.1%, demonstrating a 16.2% decrease from 2015. The percentage of HCV RNA-positive patients who were treated was 27.0%, a 10.5% decrease from 2015 to 2019. Conclusion: An Ab positivity rate > 4-times higher than national estimates with increased screening among baby boomers, but decreased screening among younger individuals, suggests risk-based screening is still common practice in Florida, despite universal screening recommendations. Public health efforts to decrease barriers to screening, linkage to care, and treatment are needed to reduce the burden of HCV in Florida and to ensure progress toward virus elimination.
AB - Introduction: Progress towards achieving hepatitis C virus (HCV) elimination in Florida has been hampered by barriers to screening, linkage to care, and treatment. This study aims to describe the HCV care cascade and patient characteristics in Florida. Methods: This analysis combined HCV-related laboratory data and patient characteristics from two, large US laboratory datasets that included individuals tested for HCV antibody (Ab) and HCV ribonucleic acid (RNA) viral load between January 2015 and December 2019. A decline in sequential HCV RNA viral loads was used to impute HCV treatment. Machine-learning algorithms were used to identify cured patients. The actual number of individuals with HCV Ab screening, and the number and percentage of persons who were HCV RNA-positive and treated, were calculated. Results: The number of persons in Florida diagnosed as HCV RNA-positive was 31,659 in 2019. The number of individuals HCV Ab screened in 2019 was 1,024,379, an increase of 82.5% from 2015. The percentage of HCV Ab-positive individuals was 4.1%, demonstrating a 16.2% decrease from 2015. The percentage of HCV RNA-positive patients who were treated was 27.0%, a 10.5% decrease from 2015 to 2019. Conclusion: An Ab positivity rate > 4-times higher than national estimates with increased screening among baby boomers, but decreased screening among younger individuals, suggests risk-based screening is still common practice in Florida, despite universal screening recommendations. Public health efforts to decrease barriers to screening, linkage to care, and treatment are needed to reduce the burden of HCV in Florida and to ensure progress toward virus elimination.
KW - Disease eradication
KW - Public health
KW - Screening
KW - Treatment
KW - Virus elimination
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U2 - 10.1007/s40121-021-00578-5
DO - 10.1007/s40121-021-00578-5
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85121367699
VL - 11
SP - 451
EP - 462
JO - Infectious Diseases and Therapy
JF - Infectious Diseases and Therapy
SN - 2193-8229
IS - 1
ER -
