HCV prevalence: national variation
Viral hepatitis, particularly infection caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV), is highly prevalent among injecting drug users across Europe. For every 100 people infected with HCV (antibody-positive), 75 to 80 will develop chronic infection. This has important long-term consequences, as chronic HCV infection, often worsened by heavy alcohol use, will lead to increasing numbers of deaths and cases of severe liver disease, including cirrhosis and cancer, among an ageing population of high-risk drug users.
The prevalence of antibodies to HCV, indicating present or past infection, among national samples of injecting drug users in 2014–15, varied from 16 % to 84 %, with 5 out of the 13 countries with national data reporting a rate in excess of 50 %. Among the countries with national trend data for the period 2010–15, declining HCV prevalence in injecting drug users was reported in 4 countries, while 3 observed an increase.
New HIV infections among people who inject drugs have declined
Prevalence of HCV antibody and HBV surface antigen among injecting drug users, 2014/15
Among drug users, hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is less common than HCV infection. For this virus, however, the presence of the HBV surface antigen indicates a current infection, which may be acute or chronic. In the 7 countries with national data, between 1.7 % and 11 % of drug injectors were estimated to be currently infected with HBV.
Drug injection is a risk factor for other infectious diseases, and drug-related clusters of hepatitis A were reported in the Czech Republic, Germany and Luxembourg in 2016. Clusters and sporadic cases of wound botulism among injecting drug users were also reported in Germany, Norway and the United Kingdom.