HEP C RIFE FOR JAILED DRUG USERS

ABOUT 70 per cent of drug addicts sent to NSW prisons every year are
estimated to have hepatitis C, while half of the remainder will become
infected with the virus mainly through sharing needles, a study shows.

Kate Dolan, who conducted the research with colleagues at the National
Drug and Alcohol Research Centre and St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney,
said the "alarming" situation was likely to be reflected across most
of the nation's prisons, but could be contained by increasing inmates'
access to methadone maintenance programs.

Prisons were very conducive to the spread of disease - from airborne
viruses to serious blood-borne infections such as hepatitis C. Each
year, about 15,000 people are jailed in NSW - about 6000 at any one
time - and there are 20,000 internal transfers of inmates between prisons.

Dr Dolan yesterday presented to the Public Health Association of
Australia's health in prisons conference the preliminary results from
a two-year randomised control trial of methadone in NSW prisons.

The trial involved 384 male inmates assessed by correction health
authorities to be illicit drug users. About 60 per cent had used drugs
while in jail in the month preceding interviews with
researchers.

Half of these men were admitted to a prison-based methadone program
and preliminary results show that, within four months, the proportion
using heroin had fallen to 44 per cent. In comparison, among the
remainder of the men, who formed a control group, rates of heroin use
increased to 84 per cent.

"Being on methadone is stopping these people from injecting. We can
say we are curing these people of heroin addiction and preventing the
transmission of hepatitis C," Dr Dolan said.

"We expect to see a significant difference between these two groups,
very few of the people in the treatment group will become infected and
most hepatitis C infections will occur in the control group."

NSW has one of only six prison-based methadone programs in operation
around the world. About 1000 NSW inmates have been enrolled on the
program, compared with 10,000 people taking part in community-based
schemes across the State.

The inmates had all used drugs outside prison, on average having their
first hit at 17 and going on to inject six times a day. One third
reported injecting cocaine and amphetamines; 60 per cent had shared
needles.

Once in jail, drug use dropped to about four or five injections a
week, but about 90 per cent of those surveyed had shared needles.

None of those surveyed tested positive for HIV infection, but 74 per
cent tested positive for hepatitis C.