Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on routine surveillance for adults with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in the UK

  1. Cori Campbell
  2. Tingyan Wang
  3. David A Smith
  4. Oliver Freeman
  5. Theresa Noble
  6. Kinga A Várnai
  7. Steve Harris
  8. Hizni Salih
  9. Gail Roadknight
  10. Stephanie Little
  11. Ben Glampson
  12. Luca Mercuri
  13. Dimitri Papadimitriou
  14. Christopher R Jones
  15. Vince Taylor
  16. Afzal Chaudhry
  17. Hang Phan
  18. Florina Borca
  19. Josune Olza
  20. Frazer Warricker
  21. Luis Romão
  22. David Ramlakhan
  23. Louise English
  24. Paul Klenerman
  25. Monique I. Andersson
  26. Jane Collier
  27. Eleni Nastouli
  28. Salim I Khakoo
  29. William Gelson
  30. Graham S Cooke
  31. Kerrie Woods
  32. Jim Davies
  33. Eleanor Barnes
  34. Philippa C Matthews
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Abstract

Background and aims

To determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the population with chronic Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection under hospital follow-up in the UK, we quantified the coverage and frequency of measurements of biomarkers used for routine surveillance (ALT and HBV viral load).

Methods

We used anonymised electronic health record data from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Informatics Collaborative (HIC) pipeline representing five UK NHS Trusts.

Results

We report significant reductions in surveillance of both biomarkers during the pandemic compared to pre-COVID years, both in terms of the proportion of patients who had ≥1 measurement annually, and the mean number of measurements per patient.

Conclusions

Further investigation is required to determine whether these disruptions will be associated with increased rates of adverse chronic HBV outcomes.

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