Research and analysis

HPR volume 13 issue 33: news (23 and 24 September)

Updated 20 December 2019

Hepatitis C in the UK annual report

Preliminary data indicate that mortality attributable to hepatitis C-related end-stage liver disease, including liver cancer, fell in the UK in 2018 for the third successive year (having been rising steadily prior to 2015). This meant that total reported deaths from serious hepatitis C-related liver disease fell 19% between 2015 and 2018 (from 468 to 380). There was also a more than 20% drop in the number of people living with HCV infection over the same period, an estimated 143,000 people in the UK were living with chronic hepatitis C virus infection in 2018.

These are among the conclusions of Public Health England’s (PHE) eleventh annual Hepatitis C in the UK report, published on 13 September 2019 [1].

As a result, the World Health Organization (WHO) target for reduced HCV-related mortality by 2020 has been exceeded 3 years early in the UK. This suggests that improved access to treatments has had a significant impact in controlling the virus; however, two-thirds of those chronically infected, up to around 95,600 people in the UK remain undiagnosed.

In a press release announcing the publication Dr Helen Harris, senior hepatitis C clinical scientist at PHE, stated:

“As well as the fall in hepatitis C deaths, greater access to new curative treatments may also be linked to a reduction in the number of people with the disease requiring liver transplants. In 2017, registrations for a liver transplant due to hepatitis C in England fell to a 10-year low of 63, a 53% decrease compared to pre-2015 levels.

“While work must continue to identify those who are undiagnosed, it is also equally important to help those who are diagnosed but untreated to engage with treatment services. To achieve this there has been a rise in partnerships across the system, new resources and re-engagement exercises to help vulnerable people navigate the system”.

In 2018, PHE and NHS England launched a national exercise to identify and treat patients who have been previously diagnosed with hepatitis C.

References

1. PHE, Health Protection Scotland, Public Health Wales, HSC Northern Ireland, (13 September 2019). Hepatitis C in the UK: 2019 report. See also the Hepatitis C: guidance, data, and analysis health protection guidance collection.

Infection reports in this issue

This issue includes:

• Laboratory surveillance of Enterococcus spp. bacteraemia in England, Wales and Northern Ireland: 2018.

• Laboratory surveillance of polymicrobial bacteraemia and fungaemia in England, Wales and Northern Ireland: 2018.