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BMC Public Health
Published in: BMC Public Health 1/2015

Open Access 01-12-2015 | Research article

Insufficient access to harm reduction measures in prisons in 5 countries (PRIDE Europe): a shared European public health concern

Authors: Laurent Michel, Caroline Lions, Sara Van Malderen, Julie Schiltz, Wouter Vanderplasschen, Karina Holm, Torsten Kolind, Felice Nava, Nadja Weltzien, Andrea Moser, Marie Jauffret-Roustide, Olivier Maguet, Patrizia M Carrieri, Cinzia Brentari, Heino Stöver

Published in: BMC Public Health | Issue 1/2015

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Abstract

Background

Prisoners constitute a high-risk population, particularly for infectious diseases. The aim of this study was to estimate the level of infectious risk in the prisons of five different European countries by measuring to what extent the prison system adheres to WHO/UNODC recommendations.

Methods

Following the methodology used in a previous French survey, a postal/electronic questionnaire was sent to all prisons in Austria, Belgium, Denmark and Italy to collect data on the availability of several recommended HIV-HCV prevention interventions and HBV vaccination for prisoners. A score was built to compare adherence to WHO/UNODC recommendations (considered a proxy of environmental infectious risk) in those 4 countries. It ranged from 0 (no adherence) to 12 (full adherence). A second score (0 to 9) was built to include data from a previous French survey, thereby creating a 5-country comparison.

Results

A majority of prisons answered in Austria (100 %), France (66 %) and Denmark (58 %), half in Belgium (50 %) and few in Italy (17 %), representing 100, 74, 89, 47 and 23 % coverage of the prison populations, respectively. Availability of prevention measures was low, with median adherence scores ranging from 3.5 to 4.5 at the national level. These results were confirmed when using the second score which included France in the inter-country comparison. Overall, the adherence score was inversely associated with prison overpopulation rates (p = 0.08).

Conclusions

Using a score of adherence to WHO/UNODC recommendations, the estimated environmental infectious risk remains extremely high in the prisons of the 5 European countries assessed. Public health strategies should be adjusted to comply with the principle of equivalence of care and prevention with the general community.
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Metadata
Title
Insufficient access to harm reduction measures in prisons in 5 countries (PRIDE Europe): a shared European public health concern
Authors
Laurent Michel
Caroline Lions
Sara Van Malderen
Julie Schiltz
Wouter Vanderplasschen
Karina Holm
Torsten Kolind
Felice Nava
Nadja Weltzien
Andrea Moser
Marie Jauffret-Roustide
Olivier Maguet
Patrizia M Carrieri
Cinzia Brentari
Heino Stöver
Publication date
01-12-2015
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Public Health / Issue 1/2015
Electronic ISSN: 1471-2458
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-015-2421-y

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