Use of the Workbook Method to estimate the prevalence of chronic hepatitis B infections in the European Union and European Economic Area, 2022
Finatto Canabarro, Ana Paula Duffell, Erika Hansson1, Disa Dudareva, Sandra Seyler, Thomas Niehus, Rene Ndeikoundam Ngangro, Ndeindo El-Khatib, Ziad Plettinckx, Els Mortgat, Laure
Finatto Canabarro, Ana Paula
Duffell, Erika
Hansson1, Disa
Dudareva, Sandra
Seyler, Thomas
Niehus, Rene
Ndeikoundam Ngangro, Ndeindo
El-Khatib, Ziad
Plettinckx, Els
Mortgat, Laure
Series / Report no.
Open Access
Type
Article
Language
en
Date of publication
2026-04-01
Year of publication
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Title
Use of the Workbook Method to estimate the prevalence of chronic hepatitis B infections in the European Union and European Economic Area, 2022
Translated Title
Published in
Eurosurveillance 2026; 31(14):2500322
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Up-to-date estimates of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) prevalence in both general and key populations are challenging to obtain because of underdiagnosis, heterogeneous surveillance systems and underrepresentation of key populations.
AIM
We aimed to test the Workbook Method to estimate chronic HBV prevalence in 2022 across the EU/EEA, by country and among men who have sex with men (MSM), people who inject drugs (PWID) and migrants.
METHODS
We used the Robert Koch Institute’s version of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Workbook Method to generate HBV prevalence estimates for each EU/EEA country and for MSM, PWID and migrants within each country. We combined data on population size and HBV prevalence for each population group gathered from scientific sources and reviewed by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control’s hepatitis national contact points.
RESULTS
Overall, 0.7% (lower bound–upper bound: 0.5–0.9%) of the EU/EEA population (3,226,000 (2,397,000–4,149,000) individuals) were estimated to be living with HBV in 2022. National HBV prevalence ranged from 0.1% (0.1–1.0%) to 3.1% (2.8–3.3%). Prevalence estimates varied from 0.8% (0.5–1.0%) to 10.5% (9.3–11.9%) for migrants, < 0.1% to 8.7% (lower and upper bounds not available) for PWID and from < 0.1% (< 0.1– < 0.1%) to 10.5% (10.2–10.8%) for MSM.
DISCUSSION
Despite limitations, including the inability to address overlapping populations, these estimates confirm substantial chronic HBV prevalence in the EU/EEA, with considerable variation between countries and population groups. This relatively straightforward method offers an alternative means of generating HBV prevalence estimates.