People aged 16 and over who receive routine blood tests when they attend Sheffield’s Northern General Hospital A&E department are to be tested for HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C, regardless of symptoms, as part of a new Government scheme, unless they choose to opt out.
Thousands of people in England are thought to be living with an undiagnosed blood borne virus – HIV, hepatitis B or hepatitis C – without being aware they have one of these viruses. The routine testing will support earlier detection and diagnosis of the blood borne viruses, saving lives and giving people access to the latest and most effective treatments (which can be curative in the case of hepatitis C).
Opt-out blood borne virus (BBV) testing in Emergency Departments has been a flagship initiative in other NHS A&E departments since 2022, helping to diagnose thousands of people with serious infections and saving thousands of lives. The scheme also supports the UK Action Plan to end all new HIV cases by 2030 through earlier identification and detection.
All three infections, once known about, can be effectively managed, or cured. Patients who test positive for any of the blood borne viruses will be offered specialist support and have a treatment plan put in place. Most do not realise they have been at risk, feel completely well for many years before developing advanced disease and/or unknowingly passing these infections on to their partners, and have never had the opportunity to test. However, although blood borne viruses can cause serious illness in the majority of cases there is nothing to worry about.
More than 56,000 blood tests are carried out in Sheffield’s A&E department a year – or 4,670 a month. Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of 46 new sites to receive funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and NHS England to implement the scheme over the next 12 months. Posters will be available in A&E to inform patients about the testing. If they are not required to have a blood test during their visit, they will not be tested.
Dr. Rachel Foster, Consultant in Infectious Diseases and Acute Medicine at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, said: “We are really excited to be rolling out this life-saving routine opt-out testing scheme for blood borne viruses in our emergency department. Elsewhere in the country the scheme has had a significant impact in diagnosing thousands of people who would otherwise not have been aware they had HIV, hepatitis B or C, so we, as a Trust, are proud to improve the lives of the people we serve and target viruses that affect our local community. We also hope the scheme will normalise testing for HIV and thus reduce associated stigma.”
The rollout of the Opt-Out Blood-Borne Virus Testing initiative in Sheffield is being supported by a successful collaboration between the Trust’s emergency, laboratory medicine, virology, infectious diseases and research departments, as well as the Stonegrove Centre.
