ANSPS National Data Report 1995-2024 header 4:3

Australian NSP Survey 30 year National Data Report 1995-2024

Based on data from 65,000 respondents, this special 30-year report presents national and jurisdiction-level findings from the Australian Needle Syringe Program Survey (ANSPS) since its inception in 1995. The ANSPS provides serial point prevalence estimates of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) antibody, hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibody and RNA, and sexual and injecting risk behaviour among people who inject drugs attending needle syringe programs (NSPs) in Australia.

Conducted annually over a one to two week period in October, all clients attending participating NSPs are invited to complete a brief, anonymous questionnaire and provide a capillary blood sample for laboratory testing.

Findings highlight the success of harm reduction strategies in Australia as well as the benefits of investing in robust sentinel surveillance to monitor trends in drug use, sexual and injecting risk behaviour, treatment uptake and the prevalence of blood-borne viral infections among people who inject drugs.

Key findings

The median age of respondents has increased over time from 29 years in
1995 to 45 years in 2024, with a corresponding decline in the proportion of young people (aged less than 25 years) from 30% in 1995 to 3% in 2024, suggesting an aging cohort of people accessing NSP in Australia.
Methamphetamine is now the most commonly reported drug last injected,
doubling in prevalence from 2010 and reported by just over half of all respondents in 2024.
The proportion of respondents reporting last month reuse of needles and
syringes after they had been used by another person (receptive syringe
sharing) has fluctuated over the past 30-years but has remained below 20% since 1997.
HIV antibody prevalence has remained below 2.5% over the last 30 years,
with prevalence consistently higher among gay male respondents.
HCV antibody prevalence among respondents fluctuated over the last 30
years, from a high of 63% in 1995 to 39% in 2024.
Testing for HCV RNA among respondents was first conducted in 2015 when
51% tested positive, declining to 8% in 2024, suggesting a population-level reduction in viraemic prevalence through high levels of treatment and cure among PWID.