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Hepatitis C percentage of individuals tested

Last updated on Thursday, 10 April 2025 at 03:31pm

Summary

Topic
Hepatitis-C
Category
cases
API name
hepatitis-c_cases_PWIDproportionChronic

Rationale

To estimate the number of people who inject drugs, who are living with chronic hepatitis C (a long-lasting infection affecting the patient for many years) at a single time point.

Definition

This metric shows the proportion of all individuals tested for Hepatitis C through the Unlinked Anonymous Monitoring (UAM) survey with an active infection (chronically infected). These individuals are ribonucleic acid (RNA) positive indicating they have the virus in their blood. The proportion with antibodies relates to the proportion of all individuals tested for hepatitis C through the UAM survey who have ever had hepatitis C, which includes those currently infected and those who no longer have the virus.

Methodology

The UAM Survey of people who inject drugs monitors bloodborne viruses (BBVs), and associated risk and protective behaviours among people who inject drugs in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The survey is voluntary and includes people who have ever injected psychoactive drugs, including people who currently inject drugs, or people who have done so previously.

People are recruited to participate in the survey through specialist agencies. These agencies provide a range of services to people who inject drugs, from medical treatment to needle and syringe provision (NSP) and outreach work. People who agree to participate in the UAM Survey provide a dried blood spot sample and self-complete a behavioural questionnaire.

Caveats

Retrospective analysis (a study that looks back in time) of hepatitis C virus RNA (2014 to 2016) was performed as part of the EPIToPE study. This was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Programme Grants for Applied Research programme (Grant Reference Number RP-PG-0616-20008). The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).

Estimates for chronic and cleared (meaning the patient no longer has the infection) hepatitis C virus infection have been adjusted to consider hepatitis C virus antibody positive samples with missing RNA status. The ratio of chronic to cleared infection was applied to the hepatitis C virus antibody positive samples with missing RNA status by year and region.

During 2020 and 2021, recruitment to the UAM Survey was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, there were changes in the geographic and demographic profile of people taking part. This should be considered when interpreting data for these years.

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