Unitaid puts $7.8m into stopping hepatitis C among people who inject drugs
Three projects in ten countries will bring testing and cure to harm-reduction services, including in prisons.
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Geneva — Unitaid, the global health agency, is investing a further US$7.8 million in three projects to prevent and treat hepatitis C among people who inject drugs in ten low- and middle-income countries.
Hepatitis C attacks the liver and can lead to cancer, but medicines now cure it. Even so, close to a million people catch it each year. There is no vaccine and no preventive pill.
Unitaid technical manager Karin Timmermans said prevention is simple in principle: everyone who injects needs enough clean needles and syringes. People share, she said, because they lack new equipment, not because they want to. Programmes are often few and far between, pharmacy supplies can be too expensive, and fear of arrest and stigma keep people away from care.
What the money will do
- Add hepatitis C testing and treatment to harm-reduction services, which offer clean equipment and treatment for opioid dependence, including in prisons.
- Study low dead-space syringes, which leave less blood behind and could reduce transmission when equipment is shared.
The idea is to reach people where they already go and feel safe, and keep them in care through testing and cure.
Source: Unitaid via AllAfrica, 29 October 2026.
