World Hepatitis Day 2023: text version
Updated 7 March 2024
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Measuring progress towards the elimination of viral hepatitis as a public health problem in England.
Hepatitis B virus (HBV)
Prevalence
206,000 (95% confidence interval 157,000 to 274,000) (0.45% of the population) were estimated to be living with chronic hepatitis B infection in 2021.
Mortality
Impact target: equal to or less than 4 per 100,000 persons
HBV-related mortality rate was 0.15 per 100,000 population in 2021. This has remained stable since 2015.
Elimination of maternal to child transmission
Impact target: equal or less than 2%
In 2020 to 2021, one in a thousand children born to a woman with HBV developed chronic hepatitis B infection.
Programmatic targets: antenatal screening and infant vaccine coverage over 90%
In 2020 to 2021:
- 99.9% of pregnant women were screened for HBV
- 99% of infants born to a woman with HBV received birth dose vaccine within 24 hours
- 92% of infants received 3 doses of hexavalent vaccine in the universal programme by 12 months of age
Vaccination in higher risk groups
Uptake of at least one dose of HBV vaccine has decreased among people who inject drugs over the past decade with 61% uptake in 2021 versus 75% uptake in 2012.
Information on data sources and methodologies can be found at Hepatitis B in England.
Hepatitis C virus (HCV)
Prevalence
70,649 people (95% credible interval 53,934 to 85,996) (0.15% of the population) were estimated to be living with chronic hepatitis C infection in 2022. This is a 45% reduction from 2015.
Mortality
Impact target: equal to or less than 2 per 100,000 persons
The HCV-related mortality rate was 0.48 per 100,000 population in 2021. This has reduced since 2015.
Treatment
Number of individuals diagnosed with chronic HCV infection who initiated curative HCV treatment.
Programmatic target: equal to or greater than 80%
Between 2016 and 2021, 73.0% of diagnosed patients with chronic HCV initiated treatment.
Hepatitis C reinfections
The rate of reinfection with hepatitis C was 7.7 per 100 person years.
Information on data sources and methodologies can be found at Hepatitis C in England and the UK.