England on course to be first country to eliminate hepatitis C

England has already hit its target of treating 80% of known hepatitis C cases and has cut deaths from the liver-attacking virus by roughly 36% over the past decade, putting it on track to beat the WHO’s 2030 elimination goal. A course of antiviral tablets taken over 8 to 12 weeks cures more than 95% of infections, and since 2015 over 100,000 people have been diagnosed and treated.

Because hepatitis C is usually symptomless until it has caused serious liver damage, much of the effort has gone into finding undiagnosed carriers through A&E blood tests, testing at GP registration, and free confidential home self-test kits that require no appointment. An estimated 50,200 adults in England still live with the virus, and around 84.6% of cases are now diagnosed — just short of the 90% target. Officials are urging higher-risk groups to test, including adults born before 1991 in several Eastern European countries where medical or dental procedures may have spread infection.

The progress sits against the backdrop of the UK’s infected blood scandal, in which more than 30,000 people were infected with HIV and hepatitis C via contaminated blood products between 1970 and 1991. About 3,000 have since died, and a public inquiry concluded authorities covered up the disaster and exposed victims to unacceptable risk — a reminder of how much of the current caseload traces back to systemic failures rather than individual behavior.