10 Ways to Reduce Blood-Borne Viruses in Prisons

Clean needle program tops the list of strategies outlined in a consensus statement released by the Harm Reduction in Prisons Working Group. The statement aims to provide a clear, concise overview of evidence-based harm reduction interventions needed to reduce injecting-related harms in Australian prisons.

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The Weakest Link

Australian policy makers must act to reduce the spread of blood-borne viruses (BBVs) in prisons or we won’t be able to achieve critical public health goals like eliminating hepatitis C. This was the call in a consensus statement released by the Harm Reduction in Prisons Working Group.

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The Challenges of Aboriginal Prisoner Care in South Australia

While only 2.3% of South Australia’s population is Indigenous, almost a quarter (22%) of people in the State’s prison system are Aboriginal. The prison population is also rife with blood-borne viruses, including hepatitis B and C—viruses which also disproportionately affect Indigenous people in the general population.

Untreated chronic health conditions (as well as hepatitis these commonly include mental illness, diabetes, heart and respiratory diseases, cancer and drug use), compounded by a prisoner’s isolation from their family and community, and a fracturing in their cultural identity and spiritual wellbeing, can be catastrophic for an Aboriginal person in the prison system.

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