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Study results are currently showing
that incarcerated individuals with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection
can be successfully treated with pegylated interferon and ribavirin, and have
achieved comparable rates of treatment completion and sustained viral response
to those outside the correctional setting. HCV infection within incarcerated
populations has reached as high as 31 percent, compared with 1.6 percent of the
general population, leading researchers to suggest that anti-viral treatment
while incarcerated is optimal.
No study had compared treatment with
pegylated interferon and ribavirin between contemporaneous incarcerated and
community patients treated at the same clinic until Michael Lucey (University
of Wisconsin, Madison, USA) and colleagues evaluated 388 incarcerated and 521
nonincarcerated HCV-infected patients for treatment at the University of
Wisconsin clinics between January of 2002 and December of 2007. Overall, 386
(69.8 percent) patients completed a full treatment course, and a similar
proportion of incarcerated and nonincarcerated completed a full treatment
course (75 percent and 68.6 percent, respectively). Additionally, a sustained
viral response (SVR) was achieved in a similar number of both incarcerated
(42.9 percent) and nonincarcerated (38 percent) patients.
The study shows that prison offers
potential access to appropriate HCV care for a population with numerous
socioeconomic, psychiatric, and substance abuse factors.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
