Patients Better Informed About Hiv, Hep C Virus Tests That Give Immediate Results

Main navigation Johns Hopkins Legacy Online packages Faculty Directory Experiential studying Career assets Alumni mentoring program Util Nav CTA CTA Breadcrumb Patients Better Informed About HIV, Hep C Virus Tests That Give Immediate Results When substance use disorder sufferers have been tested for both HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) at the same time and given the outcomes within 20 minutes, they had been way more doubtless a month later to indicate they had acquired results, in contrast with sufferers who had been referred for testing providers, based on a brand new examine led by a Johns Hopkins University researcher. For the research, newly revealed in Medical Care, 162 patients at two New York City remedy facilities had been divided right into a treatment group that immediately obtained test results and submit-check counseling, and a control group that was referred off-web site and encouraged to get tested, as is commonplace apply. Of the 134 patients who completed the comply with-up assessment a month later, sixty nine % of these within the treatment group mentioned they had gotten both test results. Only 19 percent of those in the control group reported receiving them. None of the study participants tested optimi stic for HIV. Seven from the quick-outcomes remedy group examined preliminary-optimistic for HCV, and one from the referral control group reported getting an HCV-constructive end result, says lead author Jemima Frimpong, a Johns Hopkins Carey Business School associate professor with experience in decision making inside health care organizations. The findings recommend that jointly offering HIV and HCV testing on-website and providing immediate take a look at outcomes would help increase infection awareness amongst people with substance use problems who don’t know they have HIV or HCV. It additionally means greater alternatives for getting sufferers in remedy and improving their high quality of life. At the power level, managers may have a extra correct picture of an infection rates, which can then inform how they arrange service delivery, Frimpong says. As the study notes, substance use dysfunction is associated with HIV and HCV. Yet a survey conducted in 20 U.S. cities found that about 50 p.c of HIV-optimistic people who inject medicine had been unaware that they had the virus, while seventy five percent of HCV-positive individuals with a substance use dysfunction didn't know they had been infected. Such numbers have led the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to advocate routine HIV and HCV testing for individuals with a history of substance use. Patients sometimes are tested at facilities apart from their traditional treatment centers, and they must return days later to get the results. Often, they are unable or unwilling to make the return visits â€" as mirrored in the study’s discovering that only about a fifth of patients within the management group later stated they knew their check outcomes. Frimpong says this indicates “lapses in the care-delivery process, which can have adverse consequences for rising awareness of HIV and HCV infections, and for early initiation of therapy.” Conducting exams at sufferers’ regular treatment ce nters with results in 20 minutes has significant advantages over the traditional strategy to testing, says Frimpong. “The rapid take a look at kits that had been used in our study didn't take blood from a vein; it was carried out less invasively, with a finger stick. These exams could be carried out by program workers with limited however targeted coaching. The kits are additionally highly accurate in detecting HIV and HCV, and don't require a return visit for the affected person. In addition, fast HIV and HCV testing has been shown to be price effective,” she says. The examine covers new ground with its development and test of a comprehensive package deal of methods for rapid testing for HIV and HCV, Frimpong says. She adds that future analysis may study how well being care organizations would possibly greatest implement the rapid testing technique for HIV and HVC. “Bundling Rapid Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Hepatitis C Virus Testing to Increase Receipt of Test Results† was co-authored by Frimpong of Johns Hopkins; Professor Lisa Rosen-Metsch, Professor Susan Tross, and doctoral candidate Karen Shiu-Yee, all of Columbia University; Professor Thomas D’Aunno and Professor Shiela Strauss, both of New York University; Professor David Perlman of the Icahn School of Medicine; Professor Bruce Schackman of Weill Cornell Medical College; and Professor Daniel Feaster of the University of Miami. Jemima A. Frimpong, PhD (Management Science and Applied Economics, The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania) is an Associate Professor at the Carey Business School. She can be a college member of the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality at the School of Medicine. Before becoming a member of Johns Hopkins University, she was on the college of Columbia University. Posted one hundred International Drive