Public Health Wales has published its latest annual surveillance report on hepatitis B and hepatitis C, covering data to the end of 2025. O in five people who tested positive for hepatitis C antibodies for the first time in 2025 never went on to receive the confirmatory test needed to establish whether they actually have an active infection requiring treatment. Without that follow-up test, nobody knows whether that person needs treatment — they simply fall out of the system, at real risk of long-term liver damage, cirrhosis, and liver cancer down the line. This gap has persisted at similar levels for years, and closing it is now central to Wales’s progress towards the WHO’s target of eliminating both viruses as public health threats by 2030.
Director of Communications and Policy at Liver UK, Vanessa Hebditch, said:
This report is a stark reminder that progress on diagnosis rates alone doesn’t tell the full story. Every person who falls out of the system after a first positive test is a person we’re failing at exactly the moment we could still change their outcome.
We’ll be taking this evidence directly to Senedd members in October, because closing this gap has to be a political priority, not just a clinical one.
Liver UK will be visiting the Senedd on the 6th of October to meet with the new Senedd Cymru members and share our campaigns on liver disease, and this report will be central to those conversations.
The headline figures show real progress: new chronic hepatitis B infections and new hepatitis C diagnoses both fell by around a fifth in a year, and hepatitis C-linked deaths in 2025 were markedly down. But the testing gap above shows the picture is more complicated than it first appears.
The report’s demographic breakdowns reinforce a familiar pattern: men are diagnosed with both viruses at roughly double the rate of women, people in prison face reactivity rates several times the Wales-wide average, and people who inject drugs remain at the highest risk of infection and reinfection. There’s a geographic dimension too — testing and positivity rates vary significantly by health board, meaning where you live in Wales still shapes your chances of being tested, diagnosed and treated.
On treatment, three in five people newly diagnosed since 2022 have started treatment, and over three-quarters of those treated have cleared the virus — a marked improvement. But nearly a quarter who cleared it have since tested positive again, underlining that treatment alone isn’t enough without sustained harm reduction support. On that front, needle and syringe programme coverage sits at only around two-thirds of the recommended level to properly interrupt transmission.
Wales has committed, alongside the rest of the UK, to eliminating hepatitis B and C by 2030. This report shows that ambition is achievable — but only if the testing gap, the inequalities, and the harm reduction shortfall are addressed with real urgency. Liver UK will continue to press for exactly that, and we look forward to making this case in person when we bring the Love Your Liver roadshow to the Senedd on 6 October.
Source: Public Health Wales, Trends in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis B and hepatitis C in Wales: Annual surveillance report 2026 (Data to end of 2025), published 28 July 2026.
Trends in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis B and hepatitis C in Wales Annual surveillance report 2026 (Data to end of 2025)
Tueddiadau mewn atal, diagnosio a thrin hepatitis B a hepatitis C yng Nghymru Adroddiad gwyliadwriaeth blynyddol 2026 (Data hyd at ddiwedd 2025)
