Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Jan 25;18(1):66-82.
doi: 10.1108/IJPH-02-2021-0018. Epub 2021 Aug 13.

HIV/AIDS, hepatitis and tuberculosis-related mortality among incarcerated people: a global scoping review

Rebecca Jane Bosworth  1 , Rohan Borschmann  2 , Frederick L Altice  3 , Stuart Alistair Kinner  4 , Kate Dolan  5 , Michael Farrell  1
Affiliations

HIV/AIDS, hepatitis and tuberculosis-related mortality among incarcerated people: a global scoping review

Rebecca Jane Bosworth et al. Int J Prison Health. .

Abstract

Purpose: People in prison are at a higher risk of preventable mortality from infectious disease such as HIV/AIDS, HBV, HCV and TB than those in the community. The extent of infectious disease-related mortality within the prison setting remains unclear. Our aim was to collate available information on infectious disease-related mortality, including the number of deaths and calculate the person-time death rate.

Design/methodology/approach: We searched databases between 1 Jan 2000 and 18 Nov 2020 for studies reporting HIV, HBV, HCV, TB and/or HIV/TB-related deaths among people in prison.

Findings: We identified 78 publications drawn from seven UNAIDS regions encompassing 33 countries and reporting on 6,568 deaths in prison over a 20-year period. HIV/AIDS (n=3,305) was associated with the highest number of deaths, followed by TB (n=2,892), HCV (n=189), HIV/TB (n=173), and HBV (n=9). Due to the limitations of the available published data, it was not possible to meta-analyse or in any other way synthesise the available evidence.

Originality/value: To our best knowledge, this is the first scoping review focused on deaths due to these infections among people in prison internationally. The gaps identified form recommendations to improve the future collection and reporting of prison mortality data.

Research implications: To inform targeted efforts to reduce mortality, there is a need for more, better quality data to understand infectious disease-related mortality in custodial settings. Increased investment in the prevention and management of infectious diseases in custodial settings, and in documenting infectious disease-related deaths in prison, is warranted and will yield public health benefits.

Keywords: HIV/AIDS; HIV/TB; Prison; hepatitis B; hepatitis C; infectious disease; mortality; tuberculosis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:
PRISMA flow diagram for the scoping review including database searches, the number of abstracts screened and the full-text articles retrieved
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Aidsinfo UNAIDS, (2020), “AIDS-related deaths”, available at: https://aidsinfo.unaids.org/ (accessed 20 April 2021)
    1. Altice FL, Azbel L, Stone J, Brooks-Pollock E, Smyrnov P, Dvoriak S, Taxman FS, El-Bassel N, Martin NK and Booth R (2016), “The perfect storm: incarceration and the high-risk environment perpetuating transmission of HIV, hepatitis C virus, and tuberculosis in Eastern Europe and Central Asia”, The Lancet, Vol. 388, No. 10050, pp.1228–1248. 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)30856-X. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Australian Government Institute of Criminology, (2019), “Deaths In custody”, available at: https://www.aic.gov.au/publications/sr (accessed 11 January 2021)
    1. Australian Institue of Health and Welfare, (2019), “How are causes of death coded?”, available at: https://www.aihw.gov.au/about-our-data/our-data-collections/national-mor... (accessed 28 May 2019)
    1. Bosworth R, Salah E, Lehtovuori R, Kinner SA, Altice FL, Farrell M, Moazen B and Dolan K, (2018), “Leave No One Behind: HIV Testing, Treatment And AIDS-Related Mortality Among People In Prison”, available at: https://ashm.org.au/Conferences/conferences-we-organise/the-hiv-aids-con... (accessed 2 May 2021)

Publication types