title: Hepatitis C seroprevalence among prison inmates since 2001: still high but declining.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Although the hepatitis C epidemic in the United States disproportionately affects correctional populations, the last national estimates of seroprevalence and disease burden among these populations are more than a decade old. We investigated routine hepatitis C surveillance conducted in state prison systems and updated previous estimates.
  
  
  METHODS
  We surveyed all U.S. state correctional departments to determine which state prison systems had performed routine hepatitis C screening since 2001. Using seroprevalence data for these prison systems, we estimated the national hepatitis C seroprevalence among prisoners in 2006 and the share of the epidemic borne by correctional populations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of at least 12 states performing routine testing from 2001 to 2012, seroprevalences of hepatitis C ranged from 9.6% to 41.1%. All but one state with multiple measurements demonstrated declining seroprevalence. We estimated the national state prisoner seroprevalence at 17.4% in 2006. Based on the estimated total U.S. correctional population size, we projected that 1,857,629 people with hepatitis C antibody were incarcerated that year. We estimated that correctional populations represented 28.5%-32.8% of the total U.S. hepatitis C cases in 2006, down from 39% in 2003.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results provide an important updated estimate of hepatitis C seroprevalence and suggest that correctional populations bear a declining but still sizable share of the epidemic. Correctional facilities remain important sites for hepatitis C case finding and therapy implementation. These results may also assist future studies in projecting the societal costs and benefits of providing new treatment options in prison systems.
authors.affiliation: Emory University, Rollins School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology, Atlanta, GA.
authors.forename: Aiden K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Varan
authors.affiliation: Emory University, Rollins School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology, Atlanta, GA.
authors.forename: Daniel W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Mercer
authors.affiliation: Emory University, Rollins School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology, Atlanta, GA.
authors.forename: Matthew S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Stein
authors.affiliation: Emory University, Rollins School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology, Atlanta, GA ; Emory School of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Atlanta, GA.
authors.forename: Anne C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Spaulding
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011329:Prisoners / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012307:Risk Factors; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D017678:Sex Distribution; D015819:Substance Abuse, Intravenous / Q000150:complications*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology