In England and Wales, and Scotland, the number of AIDS deaths attributed to injecting drug use appeared to peak in 1995, at 128 and 52 deaths respectively, and then decline. In Northern Ireland only four AIDS deaths have been attributed to injecting drug use in the whole 10 year period. In contrast, reports attributed to other exposure categories have remained stable or decreased. Since then it has remained relatively stable, with around one in five injectors having been exposed to the virus. A slight increase in prevalence was found in 1998, though it remains to be seen whether this is a persistent trend.
All percentages are unadjusted.
All percentages are unadjusted. This figure equates to one in 600 of Scotland's population being known hepatitis C antibody positive, although experts predict that the number of unknown cases exceeds the number of known cases several-fold. 3.4 Other drug related morbidity Serious unexplained illness among injecting drug users Since April 2000 a serious illness affected drug injectors in the UK and the Republic of Ireland causing a considerable number of deaths. Surveillance activities to identify additional cases in the UK and Ireland are ongoing, as are efforts to identify cases in other parts of Europe. A case control study is also in progress.