26. Outcome of Medical Referral, Hepatitis C Virus-positive Injection Drug Users

And then lastly comes the issue of, do people really get treatment? Do they really get medical evaluation? Somebody has a positive HCV test, do they get somewhere where they can get followed up? And these are some data from San Diego looking at injection drug users who were found (actually from San Diego, Portland and New York City) found to be HCV positive. Over here is the proportion of people (and remember that this is just a small pilot study) who kept an appointment for a medical evaluation. And this is not a prepaid evaluation - this is finding what is available in the community. And you see the range is about 50% to as low as 25%. So this would suggest that we are not getting people to the medical care that they need.