Overview

There are close associations between injecting drug use, hepatitis C infection and imprisonment. The prisons carry a large burden of disease due to chronic hepatitis C and are an important venue for spread of the infection, as harm reduction measures are often limited in scope and only partially effective. The prisons also provide an opportunity for health care provision.

The SToP-C project demonstrated that scale-up of direct-acting antiviral (DAA) treatments in the prison setting can successfully reduce the incidence of transmissions, make an important contribution to national efforts to achieve hepatitis C elimination as an ongoing public health threat, and also provide improved health outcomes for the individuals receiving curative treatment. This toolkit describes the steps necessary to achieve those outcomes.