AUSTRALIA: Prisoners Go Untreated as Hepatitis C Sweeps Jails

January 7, 2009

CDC 01/06/09

AUSTRALIA: " Prisoners Go Untreated as Hepatitis C Sweeps Jails "

The Age (Melbourne) (12.29.08):: Medew

In , just 1.5 percent of inmates believed to have hepatitis C virus have

been treated for the infection, according to new data from St. 's

Hospital, which provides health care to 13 of the state's 14 prisons. The study

covered the period between 2004 and September 2008, during which just 40 inmates

were treated.

" If we have more than 4,000 prisoners in , and research shows about 60

percent of them have hepatitis C, this is an appallingly low number being

treated, " said Helen McNeill, CEO of the Hepatitis C Council of . " We

know prisons are a bit of a revolving door in terms of people coming and going,

so the risk of people using drugs and infecting others with the virus is

incredibly high. There's a range of other activities inside prisons which could

lead to infection. "

In Australia generally, just 2 percent of the estimated 250,000 people with

hepatitis C accessed treatment last year. Advanced liver disease from untreated

infection jumped 33 percent in five years, from 35,900 cases in 2004 to 47,600

cases in 2007.

Government-sponsored research has found prisons play a key role in controlling

hepatitis C in the community, because many infected injecting drug users are in

jail. About 75 percent of IDUs continue injecting in jail, usually without

sterile equipment.

McNeill said logistical problems could explain the low treatment rate in

prisons, because some inmates have to be moved to another facility for the long

treatment course.

Father Norden, a former prison chaplain and government hepatitis C

advisory panel member, said the failure to provide basic health care to inmates

is at odds with the charter of human rights. He also questioned whether private

ownership of prisons is part of the problem.

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