Summary Report: Hepatitis C services in Scotland during and beyond the Covid-19 outbreak - August 2020

With the Covid-19 outbreak having caused significant disruption to healthcare services, including those for hepatitis C, this webinar was organised to discuss how services have been affected in different areas across England and explore how hepatitis C services can most effectively be re-established as we emerge from the early phase of the outbreak. The webinar featured contributions from the following speakers: • Mark Gillyon-Powell - Head of Programme, HCV Elimination, NHS England & NHS Improvement • Dr Steve Ryder - Chair, HCV Action and Clinical Lead, Nottingham Hepatitis C ODN

This report from Public Health England provides an update on the recent epidemiology of hepatitis C in London. Among the report's statistics are an estimate that 63% of people who inject drugs (PWID) in London had ever been infected with hepatitis C in 2018, with 41% of those ever infected having a current hepatitis C infection. It is estimated that 18% of PWID were unaware of their infection (lower than the 35% unaware in England as a whole). In 2017/18, 87% of eligible clients of drug treatment services received a hepatitis C test, a small increase from 86% in 2016/2017.