The public health surveillance of blood borne viruses (BBV), including Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) Hepatitis B (HBV) and Hepatitis C (HCV) associated with injecting drug use (IDU), comprises several reporting systems and studies. The Public Health Laboratory Services Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre( PHLS-CDSC), the national centre for communicable disease surveillance, run a laboratory surveillance system that collects data on positive HIV tests, a clinical reporting system that collects data on AIDS cases, a HIV treatment reporting system that collects data on people with HIV known to treatment services (SOPHID), and an unlinked anonymous surveillance programme (UAPMP) that collects data on the prevalence of blood borne viruses among at-risk populations. Finally, periodic and ad-hoc surveys of injecting drug users recruited from the community or non-specialist treatment settings also contribute information on injecting risk behaviour and the prevalence of BBV.

Date	Title	Format	View
8 Feb 2004	Prevalence of Blood Borne Viruses Among Injecting Drug Users, London, 2002

Back to top ^^

• London had nearly 60% of all AIDS cases and HIV positive tests associated with injecting drug use in England by June 2002.
• In London, there have been over 400 AIDS cases and over 1500 positive HIV tests associated with injecting drug use.
• In London, there were 447 people seen for HIV care in 2001 who acquired the infection through injecting drug use.
• These comprised 3% of the 15,000 people with HIV reported to be in care in 2001 in London, but 53% of the total number of reports in England (845) of people in care whose probable route of infection was through injecting drug use (SOPHID 2001).
• The prevalence of blood borne viruses among injecting drug users is substantially higher in London than the rest of England.
• Over 3% of IDU tested in London were infected with HIV compared to 0.3% elsewhere in England; over 30% of IDU tested in London had been or were infected with HBV compared to 21% elsewhere in England; and 47% of IDU tested in London were positive for HCV antibody compared to less than 30% of IDU elsewhere in England.
• Behavioural surveillance data from the PHLS UAPMP survey of IDUs indicate that needles and syringe sharing in the previous month among current IDUs is higher in London that the rest of England and Wales (41% and 29% respectively in 2000).
• These data suggest that London has a high burden from BBV infection among IDUs, and that injectors in London may be at greater risk of infection.

Back to top ^^