Theme: Epidemiology and Public Health Research Year: 2021
Background: March 2020, the National Ministry of Health in Greece has imposed measures to reduce and eliminate cases of the COVID-19 pandemic in all the hospitals through the country. Our aim is to record the compliance and access of intravenous drug users and liver patients to the hospital of “Agia Varvara” (hepatology department), according to their treatment, during the COVID-19 pandemic 03-05/2020. Methods: Τhe attendance of hepatological patients (70% men, average age 37.5±10 years), during 05- 75/2020 in relation to their attendance the same period in 2019, to our department. We wanted to observe if there was any reduction in the percentage of patients after the designation of the hospital as a COVID-19 Reference Center. Results: From the records of the hepatological department, the following were recorded: 04/2019:49 IVDU/HCV patients came for treatment, 131 HCV, 18 IVDU/CHB, 44 CHB. 04/2020:31 IVDU/HCV, 68 HCV, 6 IVDU/CHB, 23 CHB. 05/2019:15 ICDU-HCV, 91 HCV, 11 IVDU/CHB, 34 CHB. 05/2020:15 IVDU/HCV, 54 HCV, 13 IVDU/CHB, 17 CHB. 06/2019:31 IVDU/HCV, 134HCV, 17 IVDU/CHB, 49 CHB. 06/2020: 58 IVDU/HCV, 168 HCV, 29 IVDU/CHB, 80 CHB. Conclusion: A total of 624 hepatological patients came from March to May 2019 compared to 562 in the corresponding quarter of 2020. The attendance of IVDU /HCV and hepatological patients during the two months March-April 2020 decreased significantly (more in April than March), compared to the same period in 2019, while there was a significant increase, almost doubling in May 2020 from the corresponding month of 2019. No pharmaceutical grants were received in the development of this study.
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