25 52Research I n the province of Quebec, as elsewhere, HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections in incarcerated populations are of concern to public health and correctional service authorities. 1-3 Many studies have shown that the prevalence of HIV infection is higher in the incarcerated population than in the general population, 4-7 and more recently other studies have shown that a greater proportion of inmates are infected with HCV than with HIV. [8][9][10][11][12][13][14] People admitted to correctional facilities often have a history of injection drug use, needle-sharing and high-risk sexual behaviours. 5,7,9,15 The practice of such risky behaviours is frequently continued during incarceration, 5,9,10,15-17 along with other potentially risky activities, such as being tattooed. 5,7,8,16 To date, there has been limited information regarding the burden of HCV infection among inmates of provincial prisons in Quebec, where HIV and HCV testing is available to inmates only on request. Better knowledge of infection rates would help disease prevention and management program planning.We sought to determine the prevalence of HIV and HCV infections among inmates in 7 provincial prisons in Quebec and to identify risk factors associated with prevalent HCV infection in this population.
Methods BackgroundWe selected 7 provincial prisons from a total of 17 in the province of Quebec, to represent a diversity of settings. Of the 5 men's prisons, 1 was in Montréal, 1 was in Québec City, and 3 were in smaller cities in the eastern, western and northern regions of the province. The 2 women's prisons were both in urban settings (Québec City and Montréal). The total capacity of the participating prisons was 2077 beds for men and 162 beds for women, thus representing 52% of all 4303 beds in the Quebec network of provincial detention centres. On admission, information such as name, length of sentence and date of release is recorded in each prison's computer database.