Hepatitis remains a major health burden among people who inject drugs.

• Injecting drug use remains a major contributor to the global hepatitis C epidemic, with nearly half (48 per cent) of people who inject drugs – around 7 million – living with hepatitis C in 2024.
• The highest prevalence of hepatitis C among people who inject drugs is estimated to be in East and Southeast Asia, followed by Southern Africa, while the highest estimated number of people affected is in East and Southeast Asia and North America (amounting to half those affected 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 per cent among PWID), were living with hepatitis B in 2024.