Short Report published in the British Journal of Psychiatry on a project undertaken in collaboration with the NIHR CLAHRC for Northwest London
Acceptability and necessity of HIV and other blood-borne virus testing in a psychiatric setting
Camilla Sanger, Janine Hayward, Gira Patel, Karen Phekoo, Alan J. Poots, Cathy Howe, Owen Bowden-Jones and John Green
Abstract:
Studies in North America and Europe indicate that the prevalence of blood-borne viruses (BBVs) is elevated in individuals with severe mental illness; there are no comparable data for the UK. We offered routine testing for HIV, and hepatitis B and C in an inner-London in-patient psychiatric unit as a service improvement. Of the patients approached 83% had mental capacity to provide informed consent for testing and 66% of patients offered testing accepted. Although it was not our objective to establish the prevalence of BBVs, 18% of patients had serological evidence of a current or previous BBV infection. We found that offering routine testing in an in-patient psychiatric setting is both practical and acceptable to patients.
http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/202/4/307.abstract
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