Infectious Disease · Public Health ·
Catalonia prison programme reports declining hepatitis C prevalence
A prison-wide hepatitis C programme in nine Catalan prisons was evaluated using screening and treatment data from 2016–2024. Among 34,088 people entering prison in 2020–2024, prevalence fell from 2.2% to 0.6%, while incidence remained below 0.5 per 100 person-years from 2020.
- HCV prevalence among prison entrants fell from 2.2% to 0.6%.
- Incidence remained below 0.5 per 100 person-years from 2020.
- Four of nine prisons had no detected viraemia at end-2024.
- Among treated cases, 98.2% achieved sustained virologic response.
Researchers assessed a continuous hepatitis C virus (HCV) elimination programme in nine prisons in Catalonia, Spain. They measured HCV prevalence among people entering prison from 2020 to 2024 and examined incidence and direct-acting antiviral (DAA) treatment data from 2016 to 2024. The programme defined effectiveness as zero incidence or HCV RNA prevalence below 0.5%, a level considered unlikely to indicate transmission. Reinfection-associated factors were also analysed.
Of 34,088 entrants, 93.9% were tested; 370 infections were identified, with prevalence declining from 2.2% in 2020 to 0.6% in 2024 (p<0.001). Among 361 infections analysed, 82 were reinfections. Of 340 people treated, 334 (98.2%) achieved sustained virologic response. Incidence remained below 0.5 per 100 person-years from 2020, and no viraemia was detected in four of the nine prisons at the end of 2024.
This observational programme evaluation supports the feasibility of reducing HCV in prisons through broad screening, treatment and reinfection monitoring. Findings are specific to the Catalan prison system; the abstract does not establish that the programme alone caused the decline or that all prisons reached elimination.
In practice
For prison health services, this evaluation supports the feasibility of combining broad HCV testing, prompt direct-acting antiviral treatment and follow-up for reinfection: prevalence among entrants declined over the study period, and treated cases had a high sustained virologic response rate. These are observational programme findings from nine prisons in Catalonia, not proof that the programme alone caused the decline or evidence that every prison setting will achieve the same outcomes. Reinfection remained relevant, affecting 82 of 361 analysed infections.
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Eurosurveillance: From hepatitis C infection control to elimination: the experience of prisons in Catalonia, Spain between 2020 and 2024 ↗This is an automated AI-condensed summary that has not yet been reviewed by an editor. Always consult the full item at the original source.