Hepatitis C Virus and Associated Risk Factors among Prison Inmates with History of Drug Injection in Isfahan, Iran

Objectives: hepatitis c virus (hcv) infection is a major public healthproblem worldwide with serious complications. according to the importanceof intravenous drug use (idu) as the main risk factor forhcv infection and transmission and prison as the main source of riskybehaviors, this study conducted to define hcv infection and relatedrisk factors in prison inmates with history of idu in isfahan province,iran.methods: this is a cross –sectional study which the prison inmateswith idu history in voluntary basis were enrolled. a validated questionnairewas asked and blood sample was obtained from each subjectfor the presence of hcv antibody. odds ratio and logistic regressionwere used for data analysis and p-value < 0.05 considered significant.results: i943 inmates with history of idu participated in the study.the overall prevalence of hcv antibody was 41.6%. the main independentrisk factors were number of injection in the month [or: 1.006(1.002- 1.011)], length of drug addiction [or: 1.05 (1.004-1.098)],multiple incarceration [or: 1.15 (1.05-1.23)] and use of needle/syringeshare inside prison [or: 4.19 (2.22-7.9)]. in our study, marriage was aprotective factor for hcv infection [or: 0.34 (0.18-0.64)] as well.conclusions: according to relatively high prevalence of hcv infectionand associated risk factors which observed in this study it is importantto primary prevention in prisons through syringe/needle exchangeand counsel with imprisoned idus.