TY - JOUR T1 - Prevalence of HIV and hepatitis C virus infections among inmates of Quebec provincial prisons JF - Canadian Medical Association Journal JO - CMAJ SP - 252 LP - 256 DO - 10.1503/cmaj.060760 VL - 177 IS - 3 AU - Céline Poulin, MSc AU - Michel Alary, MD PhD AU - Gilles Lambert MD AU - Gaston Godin, PhD AU - Suzanne Landry, MA AU - Hélène Gagnon, MA AU - Éric Demers, MSc AU - Elena Morarescu, MD MSc AU - Jean Rochefort, MSc AU - Christiane Claessens, MSc Y1 - 2007/07/31 UR - http://www.cmaj.ca/content/177/3/252.abstract N2 - Background: To determine the prevalence of HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections and examine risk factors for these infections among inmates in Quebec provincial prisons. Methods: Anonymous cross-sectional data were collected from January to June 2003 for men (n = 1357) and women (n = 250) who agreed to participate in the study and who completed a self-administrated questionnaire and provided saliva samples. Results: The prevalence of HIV infection was 2.3% among the male participants and 8.8% among the female participants. The corresponding prevalence of HCV infection was 16.6% and 29.2%, respectively. The most important risk factor was injection drug use. The prevalence of HIV infection was 7.2% among the male injection drug users and 0.5% among the male non-users. Among the women, the rate was 20.6% among the injection drug users, whereas none of the non-users was HIV positive. The prevalence of HCV infection was 53.3% among the male injection drug users and 2.6% among the male non-users; the corresponding values among the women were 63.6% and 3.5%. Interpretation: HIV and HCV infections constitute an important public health problem in prison, where the prevalence is affected mainly by a high percentage of injection drug use among inmates. ER -