Table IDisease-2. Prevalence of HCV infection among injecting drug users - summary table
| Country or region | Year | Number tested | % infected (1) |
Setting/comments (2) (3) |
References |
| Belgium | 2001-02 | 631 | (35.8-79.8) | Drug treatment centres, low threshold services; screening serum | 2, 8 |
| Czech Republic | 2002 | 2005 | (29.9)-52 | Low threshold services, prisons; screening serum | 1 |
| Denmark | 1997 | 602 | (75-85) | Study prison/treatment centres; screening serum | 1, 2 |
| Germany | 1998-01 | 675 | (65.7-96.8) | Drug treatment centers, low threshold service, prisons; screening saliva/ serum | 2, 4, 7 |
| Estonia | 2002 | 100 | (90) | Low threshold services | 3 |
| Greece | 2002 | 3 191 | (34.6-66.3) | Drug treatment centres, low threshold services, public health laboratories, STD clinics; screening serum | 1, 2, 9 |
| Spain | 1997-02 | 1 249 | (49.3-92.0) | Drug treatment centres, hospitals; screening serum | 8, 20, 23 |
| France | 1995-98 | 368 | (53.2-80.1) | Prisons and public health laboratory; screening serum | 5, 6, 11 |
| Ireland | 1998-99 | 682 | 71.7-81.3 | Prisons; screening saliva | 2, 4 |
| Italy | 2002 | 79 762 | 64.9 (41.5-95.0) | Drug treatment centres; screening serum. Potential underestimation due to inclusion of unknown but probably small proportions of non-IDUs | 1 |
| Cyprus | na | ||||
| Latvia | 2001 | 261 | (83) | Needle exchange | 2 |
| Lithuania | 2000 | 693 | 79 | na | 2 |
| Luxembourg | 1998 | 116 | 37 | Prison; screening saliva | 4 |
| Hungary | 2001 | 315 | 30 | Drug treatment centres | 1 |
| Malta | na | ||||
| Netherlands | 1996-00 | 487 | (47.2-73.3) | Surveys in and outside drug treatment; screening serum | 9, 11 |
| Austria | 2001-02 | 328 | (36-67.6) | Drug treatment centres, needle exchange, low-threshold services; screening serum | 2, 3, 4 |
| Poland | 2002 | 165 | (60.6) | Drug treatment centres, street recruitment; screening serum | 1 |
| Portugal | 2000 | 369 | (45.3-92.4) | Drug treatment centres, public health laboratory, pregnant IDUs; screening serum | 1, 2, 6, 7 |
| Slovenia | 2002 | 571 | 25.4 | Drug treatment centres; screening serum | 1 |
| Slovakia | 2002 | 80 | (32.5) | Drug treatment centres; screening serum | 2 |
| Finland | 2002 | 430 | (30.2-52.0) | Needle exchanges; screening serum or saliva | 1, 5, 8 |
| Sweden | 1994 | 913 | (91.1) | Remand prison and hospital; screening | 2 |
| UK (England & Wales) | 2001 | 2 963 | 32.2-(45.8) | Drug treatment, needle exchange, low threshold, primary care and outreach; screening saliva | 1 |
| Norway | 2002 | 410 | (79) | Needle exchange; screening serum | 2 |
| Notes: | |||||
| This summary table is meant to give a global overview of HCV prevalence in IDUs in the EU. In this table data are reported for the most recent year available. Data from samples of drug users with no information on injecting status as well as self-reported test results were excluded. Data sources for more than one year are used if they clearly improve generalisability (e.g. national data, out-of-treatment data). Prevalence in this table should not be compared with previous versions to follow changes over time, as inclusion of sources may vary according to data availability. For time trends see [Annex of this statistical bulletin] | |||||
| (1) The figures given in brackets show local estimates (or range of estimates) within the country. | |||||
| (2) Saliva tests for hepatitis C antibodies underestimate prevalence. If test sensitivity is known then figures can be adjusted upwards by dividing prevalence by test sensitivity. Test sensitivity is around 70-90% in older studies and may be up to 90-95% in some recent studies. Figures have not been adjusted. | |||||
| (3) Having health problems is one selection criterion for admission to drug treatment in some countries or cities (Greece, Portugal, Rome), due to long waiting lists or special programmes for infected IDUs, and this may result in upward bias of prevalence. Prevalence from treatment data should therefore be interpreted in combination with non-treatment data. | |||||
| Sources: | |||||
| See [Table IDisease-0 Part (i)] | |||||
