title: Building a Community - Academic Partnership to Enhance Hepatitis C Virus Screening.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  An estimated 3.5 million Americans are chronically infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV). However, the majority are unaware of their HCV diagnosis and few are treated. New models are required to diagnose and link HCV infected patients to HCV care. This paper describes an innovative partnership between Sisters Together and Reaching (STAR), Inc., a community organization, and Johns Hopkins University (JHU), an academic institution, for the identification of HCV cases.
  
  
  METHODS
  STAR and JHU identified a mutual interest in increasing hepatitis C screening efforts and launched an HCV screening program which was designed to enhance STAR's existing HIV efforts. STAR and JHU used the Bergen Model of Collaborative Functioning as theoretical framework for the partnership. We used descriptive statistics to characterize the study population and correlates of HCV antibody positivity were reported in univariable/multivariable logistic regression.
  
  
  RESULTS
  From July 2014 to June 2015, 325 rapid HCV antibody tests were performed in community settings with 49 (15%) positive HCV antibody tests. 33 of the 49 HCV antibody positive individuals answered questions about their HCV testing history and 42% reported a prior positive result but were not engaged in care and 58% reported that they were unaware of their HCV status. In multivariable analysis, factors that were significantly associated with screening HCV antibody positive were increasing age (AOR: 1.06, 95% CI 1.02-1.10), male sex (AOR: 5.56, 95% CI 1.92-14.29), and history of injection drug use (AOR: 39.3, 95% CI 15.20-101.49).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The community-academic partnership was successful in identifying individuals with hepatitis C infection through a synergistic collaboration. The program data suggests that community screening may improve the hepatitis C care continuum by identifying individuals unaware of their HCV status or aware of their HCV status but not engaged in care and linking them to care.
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Irvin
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: McAdams-Mahmoud
authors.affiliation: Sisters Together and Reaching, Incorporated, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hickman
authors.affiliation: Sisters Together and Reaching, Incorporated, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.affiliation: Sisters Together and Reaching, Incorporated, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Fenwick
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Irvin
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Falade-Nwulia
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sulkowski
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chaisson
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: D L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Mehta
keywords: Hepatitis C virus; Screening; Testing