High Rates of Hep C Seen for Patients Presenting to ED With Opioid Overdose

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 13, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Patients presenting to emergency departments with opioid overdose have high rates of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, according to a study recently published in Cureus.

John A. Swift and Julie Stilley, Ph.D., from the University of Missouri School of Medicine in Columbia, conducted a retrospective cohort study to examine the prevalence of and testing history of HIV and HCV among opioid overdose patients from three emergency departments. One hundred thirty-four encounters for 120 patients were included in the study.

Forty-eight of the patients had a history of HCV testing and 54 had a history of HIV testing. The researchers found that 20 patients tested positive for HCV antibodies and one tested positive for HIV. Eight, six, and six patients had detectable HCV viral loads, undetectable HCV viral loads, and no quantitative testing, respectively. One patient had a detectable HIV viral load. Overall, 16.7 percent of both men and women had a history of a positive HCV test; compared with men, women were more likely to have ever received an HCV test (odds ratio, 2.68). Patients aged 55 to 64 years were more likely to test positive and were least likely to be untested compared with other age groups (odds ratios, 3.889 and 0.190, respectively).

"There may be potential benefits in the implementation of universal opt-out testing for HCV for patients being held for observation following an opioid overdose," the authors write.

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