1. The seroprevalence of untreated chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and associated risk factors in male Irish prisoners: a cross-sectional study, 2017
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E. Kelly, Carol Murphy, Susan McKiernan, John S. Lambert, Marie Claire Van Hout, Mary Keevans, Ross Murtagh, Tina McHugh, D. Crowley, Deirdre O’Reilly, Walter Cullen, Graham Betts-Symonds, Ciara Tobin, Eamon Laird, and Sarah Jayne Miggin
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hepatitis C virus ,Male ,Epidemiology ,Cross-sectional study ,Hepacivirus ,medicine.disease_cause ,Drug Users ,0302 clinical medicine ,Risk Factors ,Seroepidemiologic Studies ,Surveys and Questionnaires ,030212 general & internal medicine ,Substance Abuse, Intravenous ,blood-borne infections ,Medical record ,virus diseases ,Hepatitis C ,Middle Aged ,RNA, Viral ,Population study ,030211 gastroenterology & hepatology ,Adult ,medicine.medical_specialty ,viral infections ,Hepatitis C virus ,prevalence ,Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction ,Young Adult ,03 medical and health sciences ,Virology ,Internal medicine ,mental disorders ,medicine ,Humans ,Seroprevalence ,public health policy ,business.industry ,Research ,Prisoners ,Public health ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,social sciences ,Hepatitis C Antibodies ,Hepatitis C, Chronic ,medicine.disease ,Cross-Sectional Studies ,Prisons ,injecting HCV ,business ,risks ,Ireland - Abstract
Introduction Data on chronic hepatitis C (HCV) infection prevalence in European prisons are incomplete and impact the public health opportunity that incarceration provides. Aims We aimed to estimate the seroprevalence of untreated chronic HCV infection and to identify associated risk factors in an Irish male prison. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study involving a researcher-administered questionnaire, review of medical records and HCV serology. Results Of 422 prisoners (78.0% of the study population) who participated in the study, 298 (70.6%) completed the questionnaire and 403 (95.5%) were tested for HCV antibodies. Of those tested, 92 (22.8%) were HCV antibody-positive, and of those, 53 (57.6%) were HCV RNA-positive, 23 (25.0%) had spontaneous clearance, 16 (17.4%) had a sustained viral response, 10 (11.0%) were co-infected with HIV and six (6.0%) with HBV. The untreated chronic HCV seroprevalence estimate was 13.1% and the seroprevalence of HCV among prisoners with a history of injecting drug use (IDU) was 79.7%. Risk factors significantly associated with past HCV infection were IDU (p Conclusion The level of untreated chronic HCV infection in Irish prisons is high, with IDU the main associated risk.
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