Hepatitis C – scale and impact in Britain. During 1994 a questionnaire on hepatitis C was sent to drug agencies and others working with drug users. Hepatitis C was found in 6 out of 10 of over 2000 tests done on injectors attending services across the country. Nearly half the drug services responding complained of difficulty in obtaining testing or further investigation or treatment. Up to 400,000 people in the UK may have contracted the virus from injecting drugs and in a decade increasing numbers will suffer serious liver disease.