No elimination without decriminalisation! - Declaration at the 2017 World Hepatitis Summit

We, members and representatives of the viral hepatitis community—a community that includes people living with viral hepatitis, doctors, nurses, social workers, researchers, public health experts, and people who use drugs—are concerned over the growing gap between the enormous impact of hepatitis B and hepatitis C over people who use drugs and their almost non-existent access to prevention, diagnosis and treatment services around the world.

Sharing unsterile drug injecting equipment puts people at high risk of hepatitis B and hepatitis C infections. Globally it is estimated that among the 15.6 million people who currently inject drugs 52% are hepatitis C antibody positive, and 9% are living with chronic hepatitis B infection; From a public health and human rights perspective, improving access to prevention and treatment for people who use drugs is crucial to reducing hepatitis C incidence and eliminating the epidemic, as sharing of needles, syringes and other injecting equipment is estimated to account for 23% of new infections.

Ensuring access to interventions such as low-threshold needle and syringe programmes, opioid substitution therapy, hepatitis C treatment and other harm reduction interventions are essential to reduce hepatitis C incidence and prevalence among people who inject drugs, and these interventions are cost-effective. In 2016, the Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO) adopted the first ever Global Health Sector Strategy (GHSS) on viral hepatitis. It identified harm reduction as one of five core interventions needed to reach the goal of viral hepatitis elimination by 2030.

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