Unpacking hepatitis C virus risk through the experience of reinfected men in France

France is on track to meet the World Health Organisation’s goal of eliminating hepatitis C by 2030, thanks to effective harm reduction policies and broad access to antiviral treatments. However, new hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections and reinfections continue to occur. This study explored the practices associated with the risk of exposure to HCV. To do this, we adopted an interactionist approach grounded in social practice theory to examine the cultural, material, and relational dimensions of risk, and to shed light on the practices in which HCV continues to circulate. Drawing on discourses from semi-structured interviews (n = 15) with men living with HIV who experienced HCV reinfection, we analysed how HCV risk arose from everyday practices in sexual, chemsex, and shared drug injection contexts. Our findings highlight how risk was shaped not only by individual choices, but also by shared social norms (in particular regarding condom use and drug consumption in sexualised settings), an interpretative framing of individual responsibility and an affective distancing from others. Furthermore, our results emphasise how situational disruptions and practical constraints could contribute to the relational and material dynamics through which risk was produced. The study questions the suitability of individualised approaches to HCV prevention by showing how risk materialises through socially and culturally embedded collective practices.