BMJ 1995;310:1264 (13 May)

Letters

High risk behaviour is common in prisons in Berlin

EDITOR,--The issue of 4 February provides important further evidence that injecting drug users in prisons are at high risk of acquiring parenterally transmitted diseases. In a recent study among 612 injecting drug users in Berlin 418 reported a history of imprisonment.1 Of these, 202 continued to inject while in prison and 152 of these started sharing needles during their imprisonment. Needle sharing in prison proved to be the most important risk factor for HIV infection as well as a major risk factor for infection with hepatitis B and C viruses (adjusted odds ratio 10.0, 1.7, and 9.8 respectively). On the other hand, injecting drug users proved to have substantially reduced their risk behaviour outside prison. Of the study's participants, 352 (58%) stated that they had not shared needles at all or had shared only with a regular partner during their injecting career. This proportion had been about 20% in a . . . [Full text of this article]


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