TY - JOUR AU - Bretaña, Neil Arvin AU - Boelen, Lies AU - Bull, Rowena AU - Teutsch, Suzy AU - White, Peter AU - Lloyd, Andrew AU - Luciani, Fabio T1 - Transmission of Hepatitis C Virus among Prisoners, Australia, 2005–2012 T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2015 VL - 21 IS - 5 SP - 765 SN - 1080-6059 AB - Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is predominantly transmitted between persons who inject drugs. For this population, global prevalence of HCV infection is high and incarceration is common and an independent risk factor for HCV acquisition. To explore HCV transmission dynamics in incarcerated populations, we integrated virus sequences with risk behavior and spatiotemporal data and analyzed transmission clusters among prisoners in Australia. We detected 3 clusters of recent HCV transmission consisting of 4 likely in-custody transmission events involving source/recipient pairs located in the same prison at the same time. Of these 4 events, 3 were associated with drug injecting and equipment sharing. Despite a large population of prisoners with chronic HCV, recent transmission events were identified in the prison setting. This ongoing HCV transmission among high-risk prisoners argues for expansion of prevention programs to reduce HCV transmission in prisons. KW - hepatitis C virus KW - transmission KW - phylogenetics KW - clustering KW - injecting drug use KW - prisons KW - injection drug use KW - viruses KW - Australia DO - 10.3201/eid2105.141832 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/21/5/14-1832_article ER - End of Reference