Objective: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) causes acute and chronic hepatitis. This study aims to assess the rate of reflex HCV RNA requests in patients with positive anti-HCV tests, examine variations across clinics, and raise awareness about the importance of HCV RNA testing.

Methods: Anti-HCV positive serum samples that were referred to our hospital’s microbiology laboratory between 01.01.2013 and 01.01.2023 were extracted from the hospital information software system, and their HCV RNA requests were subsequently evaluated.

Results: Over ten years of screening, 5.404 blood samples were found to be Anti-HCV positive, later adjusted to 5.058 after repeated requests. Of these, 3.386 (67%) were Anti-HCV positive but HCV RNA negative, while 415 (8.2%) were both Anti-HCV and HCV RNA positive. Additionally, 1.257 cases (24.8%) did not have HCV RNA testing requested despite being Anti-HCV positive.The demand for HCV RNA testing decreased over the years, while the number of untreated Anti-HCV positive cases grew. Gynecology and Obstetrics, internal medicine, and orthopedics are the specialities least likely to request HCV RNA tests.

Conclusion: Our country needs to meet the World Health Organization (WHO) target for hepatitis C virus (HCV) elimination by 2030. However, our 10-year study shows that the awareness rate of HCV RNA reflex testing is insufficient.