Hepatitis in Europe – the hidden epidemic

As the HepHIV 2014 Conference in Barcelona continues, guest blogger Professor Jeffrey Lazarus, Secretariat Director of Health Systems Global, and a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Health and Infectious Diseases Research, tells us about the challenges we face to combat hepatitis in Europe.

When is it important to gather more evidence to inform the response to a major public health problem, and when must we act on the limited available evidence in order to save as many lives as possible? As I worked with my colleague Kevin Fenton to prepare a supplement published by BMC Infectious Diseases on viral hepatitis and drug use in Europe, I found myself reflecting often on this question.

It weighed on my mind in part because of the scale of the problem: the World Health Organization European region has an estimated 15 million people living with the hepatitis C virus (HCV), and two million of these people are thought to be current injecting drug users. The practice of sharing injecting drug equipment is widely recognised to be one of the key drivers of Europe’s hepatitis C epidemic today.

There is a need for swift action to fill a policy and programmatic void in many European countries regarding viral hepatitis prevention and treatment services for people who inject drugs. Growing recognition of this situation has helped to catalyse widespread interest in the first European Conference on Hepatitis C and Drug Use, slated for 23-24 October 2014 in Berlin.

Click here to read the full article.

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