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Review
. 2024 May 8;229(Supplement_3):S342-S349.
doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiad463.

Molecular Point-of-Care Testing for Hepatitis C: Available Technologies, Pipeline, and Promising Future Directions

Elena Ivanova Reipold  1 , Sonjelle Shilton  1 , Marco Donolato  1 , Marta Fernandez Suarez  1
Affiliations
Review

Molecular Point-of-Care Testing for Hepatitis C: Available Technologies, Pipeline, and Promising Future Directions

Elena Ivanova Reipold et al. J Infect Dis. .

Abstract

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) remains a major public health problem, despite the availability of effective treatments. In many areas, the ability to diagnose HCV infection at the point of care is key to scaling up access to care and treatment. To achieve this, an accurate, easy-to-use, and affordable diagnostic tool is required-this would enable decentralized testing and the creation of one-stop centers to eliminate gaps in the care cascade, which would help reach the millions of people with undiagnosed HCV infection in low- and middle-income countries and high-risk populations in high-income countries. In this review, we examine the current state of point-of-care molecular technologies, the advantages and limitations of currently available devices (both near- and true-point-of-care), the potential of molecular testing to transform diagnostic medicine in the future, and the challenges that need to be addressed for broader adoption of this technology in routine clinical practice.

Keywords: diagnostics; hepatitis C; molecular assays; point-of-care.

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Conflict of interest statement

Potential conflicts of interest. FIND had joint collaborative projects with Cepheid, Molbio, PlusLife, and Sherlock Biosciences and provided financial support to these companies. No financial support from these companies was receieved by FIND or any of the authors. All authors have submitted the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest. Conflicts that the editors consider relevant to the content of the manuscript have been disclosed.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Types of point-of-care (POC) technologies.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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