       Document 0778
 DOCN  M9610778
 TI    Anonymous HIV surveillance with risk factor elicitation at Scotland's
       largest prison, Barlinnie.
 DT    9601
 AU    Bird AG; Gore SM; Cameron S; Ross AJ; Goldberg DJ; Immunology
       Department, Churchill Hospital, Headington, Oxford,; UK.
 SO    AIDS. 1995 Jul;9(7):801-8. Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE MED/96035245
 AB    OBJECTIVE: To determine prevalence of HIV infection and risk behaviours
       among male inmates of Her Majesty's Prison (HMP) Barlinnie, Glasgow,
       Scotland on 8-9 September 1994. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study:
       voluntary, anonymous HIV surveillance (using saliva samples) of all
       inmates and linked self-completion risk-factor questionnaire. SUBJECTS:
       Of 1073 prisoners available to participate, 985 (92%) completed a
       risk-factor questionnaire and 982 salivettes were received for testing,
       of which 978 were tested for HIV antibodies (four were dry samples); 928
       questionnaires passed logical checks for consistency. MAIN OUTCOME
       MEASURES: HIV prevalence on saliva testing, related risk behaviours and
       ratio of overall-to-disclosed HIV prevalence. Proportion of all inmates
       who have ever injected drugs, ever injected inside prison, started
       injecting inside, ever had acute hepatitis, had a recent personal HIV
       test (since January 1993). RESULTS: Nine saliva samples [eight injecting
       drug users (IDU), one recognized other risk] out of 978 were
       HIV-antibody-positive (three presumptively from known HIV-infected
       inmates). Overall HIV prevalence was estimated at 1% compared with a
       known prevalence of 0.4%, giving an overall-to-disclosed HIV prevalence
       ratio of 2.6 in HMP Barlinnie in September 1994. A higher proportion of
       prisoners from Glasgow (48%) than elsewhere (19%) were IDU. Year of
       first injection was also different by residence with 23% of Glasgow IDU
       having first injected after 1988 compared with 45% of IDU from
       elsewhere, mainly West and South Scotland. Half the IDU inmates reported
       having injected while incarcerated and 6% had started to inject while
       incarcerated. Ten per cent of all prisoners and 20% of IDU inmates had
       had a personal HIV test since January 1993. Logistic regression showed
       that there was a significant deficit of recent HIV test uptake by
       Glasgow residents (odds ratio, 0.5; 95% confidence interval, 0.27-0.89),
       that IDU were more likely to have had treatment for a sexually
       transmitted disease, and that IDU who had injected inside and those
       whose injecting career began prior to 1989 were more likely to have had
       acute hepatitis. CONCLUSION: A consistent harm-reduction policy is
       needed across prisons in the United Kingdom to avoid transmission of
       blood-borne viral infections. Drug injecting inside prison is common, a
       proportion of IDU inmates having first injected drugs while in prison,
       and much higher rates of hepatitis have been reported in association
       with injecting while incarcerated compared with that for IDU who only
       injected outside prison.
 DE    Adult  Human  HIV Infections/*EPIDEMIOLOGY/TRANSMISSION  Male
       Prevalence  *Prisoners  Questionnaires  Scotland/EPIDEMIOLOGY  Substance
       Abuse, Intravenous/EPIDEMIOLOGY  JOURNAL ARTICLE

       SOURCE: National Library of Medicine.  NOTICE: This material may be
       protected by Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.Code).

