Around 214,000 individuals are chronically infected with hepatitis C (HCV) in the UK, national estimates from Public Health England (PHE) suggest.
Injecting drug use continues to be the most important risk factor for HCV infection in the UK with half of people who inject drugs (PWID) are thought to have been infected in England and Wales; levels are lower in Northern Ireland (23%) and higher in Scotland (57%).
However, across the UK, more individuals are being tested and diagnosed and “over the last five years particular improvements have been seen in primary care where surveillance indicates that testing has risen by 21%, 46% and 53% in England, Northern Ireland and Scotland respectively”, PHE’s new report Hepatitis C in the UK states.
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