Unlinked Anonymous Monitoring (UAM) Survey of HIV and viral hepatitis among PWID: 2020 report

The 2020 edition of the Unlinked Anonymous Monitoring (UAM) Survey of HIV and viral hepatitis among PWID contains a number of relevant updates on hepatitis C among injecting drug users, including: • The proportion of UAM participants with antibodies to hepatitis C (HCV) (i.e. ever infected) who have markers of chronic infection (RNA) has decreased from 58% in 2011 when it was first measured to 42% in 2019; this corresponds with the timing of the scale-up of direct acting antiviral treatment against HCV among PWID • In 2019, only 30% of UAM participants were aware of their chronic HCV infection, which is a drop in the level of awareness from the previous year (47% aware in 2018); however, this should be interpreted with caution due to variable sampling methods and geographical distribution in 2019. Trends should continue to be monitored in future sample years • The level of HCV infection among the recent initiates to injecting participating in this survey are not suggestive of a decline in HCV transmission in recent years • The proportion of UAM participants who reported having a HCV test in the current or previous year has increased from 39% in 2010 to 46% in 2019 • In 2019, among those with treatment status available, 39% of those aware of being HCV antibody positive had seen a specialist nurse or doctor for their HCV and been offered and accepted treatment; this is an increase from 20% in 2011 when it was first measured.