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

BMC Public Health

Research Article

Karina Holm¹  Torsten Kolind¹  Julie Schiltz²  Wouter Vanderplasschen²  Felice Nava³  Laurent Michel⁴  Caroline Lions⁵  Patrizia M Carrieri⁵  Marie Jauffret-Roustide⁶  Olivier Maguet⁷  Sara Van Malderen⁸  Andrea Moser⁹  Nadja Weltzien⁹  Cinzia Brentari^1,10  Heino Stöver^1,10 

[1] Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark;Department of Special Education, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium;Federserd, Padova, Italy;Inserm U1178, Paris, France;Univ Paris-Sud and Univ Paris Descartes, UMRS1178, Paris, France;Centre Pierre Nicole, French Red Cross, Paris, France;Inserm U912 (SESSTIM), Marseille, France;Univ Aix Marseille, IRD, UMR-S912, Marseille, France;ORS PACA, Observatoire Régional de la Santé Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur, Marseille, France;Inserm U988, Paris, France;Médecins du Monde, Paris, France;Penitentiary administration, Brussels, Belgium;Penitentiary administration, Vienna, Austria;University of Applied Sciences, Frankfurt, Germany;

关键词: Prison;    Prevention;    HIV;    HCV;    Infectious diseases;    Public health;    Recommendations;    Policy;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12889-015-2421-y

 received in 2015-02-15, accepted in 2015-10-16,  发布年份 2015

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundPrisoners 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.MethodsFollowing 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.ResultsA 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).ConclusionsUsing 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.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Michel et al. 2015