HEPATITIS C EXPERT BACKS PRISON RULES

A leading expert on liver treatment endorsed Colorado prisons' treatment of
hepatitis C patients Friday, in response to criticism from a defense lawyer.

In or out of prison, people with hepatitis C who hope for drug treatments
or liver transplants must prove they aren't abusing substances, according
to Dr. Gregory Everson, chief liver specialist at the University of
Colorado Hospital.

They also must pass a battery of medical eligibility and other tests,
including a psychological evaluation, Everson said.

Defense attorney David Lane said Wednesday that the Department of
Corrections effectively denies treatment by requiring inmates with
hepatitis C to spend a year in substance abuse classes -- while submitting
to random drug tests that must be negative -- before they can get
prescription drugs to treat the ailment.

But Everson, who directs the CU hospital's hepatology department, backed
the system.

"Treating people who are actively abusing any kind of substances doesn't
work," he said.

Lane contends that 20 percent to 40 percent of Colorado's more than 17,000
prisoners are infected with hepatitis C. He said many get the virus while
in prison.

Dr. Joe McGarry, the prison system's medical chief, said no one knows how
many state prisoners have hepatitis C. But he said tests upon admission,
begun in the last two years, have shown that about 17 percent of new
prisoners are infected.

Hepatitis C is a virus that attacks the liver and can lead to cirrhosis,
liver failure and cancer. It is most commonly acquired through contact with
infected blood -- through intravenous drug use, sniffing cocaine, tattooing
and body piercing, needle stick accidents and transfusions.

The current standard drug treatment for hepatitis C is interferon,
administered by injection, and ribavirin, taken orally. Those are the
medications Lane has accused the state of withholding from inmates.

According to Lane, that violates the U.S. Constitution's Eighth Amendment,
which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. Lane is looking into a
lawsuit against the state Department of Corrections.

Up to 4 million people in the United States have hepatitis C, and 8,000 to
10,000 of them die each year of liver failure, according to the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control.