Prevalence of hepatitis C in prisons: WASH-C surveillance linked to self-reported risk behaviours

We used cross-sectional willing anonymous salivary hepatitis C (WASH-C) surveillance linked to self-completed risk-factor questionnaires to estimate the prevalence of salivary hepatitis C antibodies (HepCAbS) in five Scottish prisons from 1994 to 1996. Of 2121 available inmates, 1864 (88%) participa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:QJM : An International Journal of Medicine 1999-01, Vol.92 (1), p.25-32
Main Authors: Gore, S.M., Bird, A.G., Cameron, S.O., Hutchinson, S.J., Burns, S.M., Goldberg, D.J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Biological and medical sciences
Cross-Sectional Studies
Hepatitis C - epidemiology
Hepatitis C - virology
Hepatitis C Antibodies - analysis
Human viral diseases
Humans
Infectious diseases
Medical sciences
Prevalence
Prisoners - statistics & numerical data
Risk-Taking
Saliva - virology
Scotland - epidemiology
Self Disclosure
Substance Abuse, Intravenous - epidemiology
Viral diseases
Viral hepatitis
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Summary:We used cross-sectional willing anonymous salivary hepatitis C (WASH-C) surveillance linked to self-completed risk-factor questionnaires to estimate the prevalence of salivary hepatitis C antibodies (HepCAbS) in five Scottish prisons from 1994 to 1996. Of 2121 available inmates, 1864 (88%) participated and 1532/1864 (82%) stored samples were suitable for testing. Overall 311/1532 (20.3%, prevalence 95%CI 18.3–22.3%) were HepCAbS-positive: 265/536 (49%, 95%CI 45–54%) injector-inmates but only 27/899 (3%, 95%CI 2–4%) non-injector-inmates. Among injectors, HepCAbS positivity was only slightly higher (p=0.03) in those who had injected inside prison (53%, 162/305) than in those who had not (44%, 98/224). Those who began injecting in 1992–96 were much less likely to be HepCAbS-positive than those who started pre-1992 (31%, 35/114 vs. 55%, 230/422; p
ISSN:1460-2725
1460-2393
1460-2393
DOI:10.1093/qjmed/92.1.25