PROMPt Testing
Rapid, easy, needle-free hepatitis testing
S
uppose for a moment that you are one of thousands of people around the world each year who confront the possibility that they may have contracted the hepatitis C virus. You’re worried, perhaps confused, and have a million other things on your mind. Where do you start? You’ll need a blood test, so you go to a GP, only to find you need to make another appointment—usually at another location—to have the blood test done. And then, after an agonising wait (an average of a week), you go to another appointment with the GP to find out the result.
then return to the GP for the result—to find out if you have a hepatitis C infection. This is because antibodies tell us if you’ve had the virus in your body, but don’t tell us if you have a current infection. Although interferon-based treatments have thankfully been displaced by effective, short-term and very tolerable oral therapies, there are still significant obstacles to hepatitis C treatment in Australia. Described above is the process to determine a person’s hepatitis C status under Medicare rules, and it is no wonder that many people don’t make it to the
If you discover you have hepatitis C antibodies, you’ll need to go through this process again—blood test,
final appointment to find out their diagnosis: life just gets in the way! If you’re a person who finds blood tests difficult and the thought of needles makes you go dry in the mouth, it’s possible you might not even make it to the first blood test for a very long time if at all. Imagine if all of these encounters could be compressed into a single appointment: a person could have a test with blood taken from a finger prick rather than a needle, get the result, and be prescribed treatment for hepatitis C all in one visit to their healthcare provider. The PROMPt study aims to make this a reality in three locations across Adelaide during a 12-month trial period. With generous funding from the Paul Ramsey Foundation and with support from the Burnet Institute, PROMPt is a collaboration between multiple stakeholders that includes SA Health, Hepatitis SA, Serco Asia Pacific, the Department for Correctional Services, Mental Health Services and Drug and Alcohol Services SA. Two rapid tests are used in the project: the SD Bioline hepatitis C antibody test and
2
HEPATITIS SA COMMUNITY NEWS 90 • June 2021
