Virol J
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Multicenter Study
Evaluation of a new point-of-care oral anti-HCV test for screening of hepatitis C virus infection.
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a public health issue for which an effective universal screening method is urgently needed. An oral anti-HCV test could provide a noninvasive and rapid screening strategy for HCV infection. This study evaluated the performance of a new point-of-care oral assay developed by Well for the detection of HCV antibody. ⋯ The Well oral anti-HCV test offers high sensitivity and specificity and performed comparably to both the OraQuick assay and InTec assay for HCV diagnosis. Thus, the Well test represents a new tool for universal HCV screening to identify infected patients, particularly in regions with limited medical resources.