World Hepatitis Day 2019: Hepatitis C Among People Who Inject Drugs

The day

World Hepatitis Day, held every year on July 28, raises awareness and understanding of viral hepatitis worldwide. The 2019 theme was "Invest in Eliminating Hepatitis" — a call for greater commitment to the hepatitis response.

The scale

In 2015, an estimated 257 million people worldwide were living with hepatitis B, and 71 million with hepatitis C.

People who inject drugs

People who inject drugs are at the highest risk of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Globally, an estimated 15.6 million people aged 15–64 inject drugs, and 52% of them have antibodies to HCV — a sign of past or current infection.

Where people who inject drugs account for a large share of hepatitis C, access to testing and treatment for them is essential to eliminating the disease.

An example: the country of Georgia

The same issue of MMWR reported on the country of Georgia's progress in preventing and detecting HCV infection among people who inject drugs, and linking those infected to treatment. Georgia's hepatitis C elimination program, launched in 2015, had recently been named the world's first Centre of Excellence in Viral Hepatitis Elimination by the European Association for the Study of the Liver International Liver Foundation.

More: CDC's viral hepatitis pages, the World Health Organization's Global Hepatitis Report, 2017, and "Progress in Testing for and Treatment of Hepatitis C Virus Infection Among Persons Who Inject Drugs — Georgia, 2018," MMWR.

Sources

Based on "World Hepatitis Day — July 28, 2019," MMWR, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain.