Hepatitis C in England 2022: accessible text for infographics – GOV.UK

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Updated 3 March 2022

© Crown copyright 2022
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hepatitis-c-in-the-uk/hepatitis-c-in-england-2022-accessible-text-for-infographics
This page gives the text equivalent of the 6 infographics accompanying the 2022 Hepatitis in England report.
The number of people with chronic HCV infection in England has fallen by 37% since 2015 to around 81,000 in 2020.
Of the 81,000 people living with chronic HCV in 2020, modelling suggests that:
Between 2015 and 2020 HCV-related mortality fell 35%. This 35% fall has surpassed (more than 3-fold) the World Health Organization (WHO) 2020 elimination target of 10%.
The WHO interim target to reduce HCV-related mortality to less than 2 in 100,000 people has already been achieved in England (0.56 in 100,000 people in 2020).
By 2020, first hospitalisations for serious HCV-related liver disease were 17% down on levels in 2015.
By 2020, registrations for a first liver transplant in patients with HCV-related disease were 40% down on levels in 2015.
Around 2 in 3 people injecting psychoactive drugs participating in the Unlinked Anonymous Monitoring (UAM) survey during 2019 and 2020 report adequate needle and syringe provision for their needs.
Harm reduction among people who inject drugs needs to be scaled up to prevent both primary infection and reinfection following HCV treatment if elimination is to be achieved and sustained.
National data and surveys suggest that more than half of people who inject drugs may be unaware of their chronic HCV infection.
More needs to be done to improve diagnosis overall, including among people with past risk factors for infection.
Increasing numbers are accessing HCV treatment, including vulnerable groups. Around 58,850 treatments took place between 2015 to 2016 and 2020 to 2021.
Further work is required to reach WHO’s 2030 target of at least 80% of people with chronic HCV diagnosed and accessing treatment (65% in the period 2015 to 2020).
Among those treated and not to follow-up, 95% were cured.
There is an urgent need, particularly following the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, to redouble efforts to improve harm reduction, testing and access to treatment for the most vulnerable populations – without this inequalities will widen.
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