This nurse-led and specialist-supported assessment and treatment model for inmates with chronic HCV offers potential to substantively increase treatment uptake and reduce the burden of disease.

Demographic data and data related to risks for blood-borne virus transmission, such as sexual activity, body piercing, tattooing, and injecting drug use, were collected.

The findings support the view that prisoner populations are vulnerable to blood-borne virus infection, particularly hepatitis B and C. Prisoner populations should be included in routine surveillance programs so as to provide a more representative picture of blood-borne virus epidemiology in Australia.

Objective: To evaluate the assessment and treatment outcomes of a prison hepatitis service. Design and setting: A retrospective, observational cohort study of prison inmates who attended hepatitis clinics from 1996 to 2005 at correctional centres in New South Wales. Patients: Inmates who attended the clinics, including a nested case–control series of patients who received antiviral treatment and age‐ and sex‐matched patients who did not receive treatment. Main outcome measures: Demographic and clinical characteristics of patients who attended the service; correlates of selection for antiviral treatment; and clinical and virological outcomes of treatment. Results: Of the 1043 inmates who attended the clinics, 851 were men (82%) and 994 (95%) were referred for HCV infection; the mean age for this group was 33 years (range, 18–74 years). In the case–control series (185 treated and 186 untreated patients), selection for treatment was not biased by culturally and linguistically diverse background, current methadone treatment or psychiatric status. In the treated group, 76 of 138 genotyped patients had a genotype that is predictive of favourable treatment response, and a small minority of those with available liver biopsy results had established cirrhosis (7/119 patients). Of treated patients for whom complete follow‐up data were available, 55% achieved sustained virological response and 100% adhered to therapy. In addition, treatment episodes were not especially complicated. Conclusion: Although the prison population has high rates of injecting drug use and poor mental health, imprisonment offers an opportunity for assessment and treatment of chronic HCV infection.

No abstract