{"id":6943,"date":"2025-11-14T10:52:04","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T01:22:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/?p=6943"},"modified":"2025-11-28T11:35:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T02:05:22","slug":"uk-shows-the-power-of-opt-out-testing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/2025\/11\/uk-shows-the-power-of-opt-out-testing\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Shows the Power of Opt-Out Testing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Thousands of Britons have been found to have been living with previously undiagnosed hepatitis and HIV under a new testing system recently introduced in accident and emergency departments by the United Kingdom’s NHS (National Health System), their equivalent to Australia’s public health system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NHS introduced opt-out testing for blood-borne viruses (BBVs) several years ago<\/a> in selected emergency departments (ED) throughout the UK. This means that, unless they specifically choose not to be, patients attending those EDs are automatically tested for hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV. The program runs in the 34 emergency departments across the country in the areas with the highest known HIV prevalence. The result is a huge increase in the number of people being tested each year, raising the number of tests by hundreds of thousands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image: iStock\/ojos de hojalata<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Now an evaluation of the first 33 months of the project has been released<\/a>, and the results are dramatic. Over this nearly-three-year period, more than 7 million BBV tests were done, representing around 50% of all BBV testing done in these areas during this period. It achieved a high test uptake rate of around 70% among eligible people, demonstrating the effectiveness of the opt-out approach.\u202f <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In those tested, there were:\u202f\u202f <\/p>\n\n\n\n