• Conor Grant, Sarah O'Connell, Darren Lillis, Anne Moriarty, Ian Fitzgerald, Linda Dalby, Ciaran Bannan, Helen Tuite, Brendan Crowley, Patrick Plunkett, Una Kennedy, Geraldine McMahon, Susan McKiernan, Suzanne Norris, Gerard Hughes, Darragh Shields, and Colm Bergin.
• Department of Genito-Urinary Medicine and Infectious Diseases, St. James's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland grantcf@tcd.ie.
• Emerg Med J. 2020 Feb 1; 37 (2): 102-105.

BackgroundWe initiated an emergency department (ED) opt-out screening programme for HIV, hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) at our hospital in Dublin, Ireland. The objective of this study was to determine screening acceptance, yield and the impact on follow-up care.MethodsFrom July 2015 through June 2018, ED patients who underwent phlebotomy and could consent to testing were tested for HIV, HBV and HCV using an opt-out approach. We examined acceptance of screening, linkage to care, treatment and viral suppression using screening programme data and electronic health records. The duration of follow-up ranged from 1 to 36 months.ResultsOver the 36-month study period, there were 140 550 ED patient visits, of whom 88 854 (63.2%, 95% CI 63.0% to 63.5%) underwent phlebotomy and 54 817 (61.7%, 95% CI 61.4% to 62.0%) accepted screening for HIV, HBV and HCV, representing 41 535 individual patients. 2202 of these patients had a positive test result. Of these, 267 (12.1%, 95% CI 10.8% to 13.6%) were newly diagnosed with an infection and 1762 (80.0%, 95% CI 78.3% to 81.7%) had known diagnoses. There were 38 new HIV, 47 new HBV and 182 new HCV diagnoses. 81.5% (95% CI 74.9% to 87.0%) of known patients who were not linked were relinked to care after screening. Of the new diagnoses, 86.2% (95% CI 80.4 to 90.8%) were linked to care.ConclusionAlthough high proportions of patients had known diagnoses, our programme was able to identify many new infected patients and link them to care, as well as relink patients with known diagnoses who had been lost to follow-up.© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.

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