Drug use & health consequences>>People Who Inject Drugs
People who inject drugs living with hepatitis
The prevalence of HIV and hepatitis C is disproportionally high among people who inject drugs, and injecting drug use remains a major contributor to the global hepatitis C epidemic
Globally, nearly every second person who inject drugs is living with hepatitis C. This amounts to nearly 7 million people who inject drugs (48%) were living with hepatitis C in 2024
The highest prevalence of hepatitis C among people who inject drugs were estimated in East and Southeast Asia followed by Southern Africa.
The highest estimated number of people who inject drugs and living with hepatitis C were in East and Southeast Asia and North America amounting to half of the global number of people who inject drugs living with hepatitis C in 2024
Among people who use inject drugs, liver diseases, including liver cancer and cirrhosis of the liver caused by hepatitis C, are the major contributors to the drug-related deaths and healthy years of life lost due to premature death and disability attributed to the use of drugs.
An estimated 1.01 million people who inject drugs, or 7.1% were living with hepatitis B in 2024
