Prisoners in Quebec and Ontario have alarmingly high rates of HIV or hepatitis C infections, finds two new studies published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. And this public health crisis is reaching beyond prison gates.
Richard Elliott, an advocate with the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, wrote a commentary on the studies that appeared in the same edition of the journal. In it, he notes the public is also at risk thanks to lacking efforts by health care officials.
"They go back to their family and friends and they go back to their communities and any diseases they may have acquired while in prison come with them," Elliott said about the prisoners.
Two studies published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal conclude that health officials need to do more to help prevent the spread of disease, whether it is through education, testing, or even a free needle exchange program.
Liviana Calzavara, a professor with the public health sciences department at the University of Toronto, spearheaded the study in Ontario and is also part of a team discussing a needle exchange pilot project in Canada.
"When you've done your best to encourage people not to engage in risky behaviour but they continue to do so, then it's our responsibility as public health practitioners to intervene to reduce the harm to others," she told CTV Toronto's Avis Favaro.
Her research found that in Ontario, over two per cent of adult inmates tested positive for HIV - 11 times the infection rate in the general public. Also, more than one in six prisoners have hepatitis C. That's 22 times the rate of infections outside prison. Worst of all, about 40 per cent don't even know they are infected.
Calzavara and her team of researchers looked at 1,800 inmates for the study.
The other study, which focused on Quebec inmates, found slightly more disturbing results.The overall prevalence of HIV among adults in prison is three per cent while the rates of hepatitis C among inmates is 18.5 per cent.
The studies suggest the viruses are spreading by intravenous drug use involving makeshift equipment shared among prisoners.
"People are taking ball point pens, they are taking cutlery ... They are fashioning crude equipment for injecting drugs," said Elliott.
No prisons in Canada currently have a needle exchange program. Elliott said the two new studies prove more needs to be done.
"They come at a time when there is little willingness -- and even outright opposition -- on the part of correctional systems and their political masters to implement evidence-based measures to address this serious public health crisis," he writes in his research paper.
Calzavara said the public can't afford letting the situation get much worse. "If it remains the way it is, it is frightening," she said.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Avis Favaro
