Vaccinations in prison settings: A systematic review to assess the situation in EU/EEA countries and in other high income countries.

Introduction: In 2016, more than 600,000 persons were being held in EU/EEA correctional facilities on a given day. People in prison may be at risk of vaccine-preventable diseases. While vaccination recommendations for people in prison exist, little is known on coverage and implementation options.

Drug consumption rooms: A systematic review of evaluation methodologies.

Issues: Drug consumptions rooms (DCR) and supervised injecting facilities (SIF) are expanding internationally. Previous reviews have not systematically addressed evaluation methodologies.

Approach: Results from systematic searches of scientific databases in English until June 2017 were coded for paper type, country and year of publication.

Challenges and opportunities for the management of infectious diseases in Europes' prisons: evidence-based guidance.

People in prison have multiple complex health and social care needs. These are likely to be the result of a combination of overlapping, and sometimes interlinked, risk factors for infection, ill-health, and incarceration, such as problem drug use. Incarceration can represent a unique opportunity to make high-quality health care available to people in prison and to target socially deprived groups who are often medically underserved when living in the community they originate from.

The Experience of the Treatment Demand Indicator in Europe: A Common Monitoring Tool Across 30 Countries.

Objective: The article describes an epidemiological indicator called Treatment Demand Indicator (TDI). The TDI aims to provide professionals and researchers with a common European methodology for collecting and reporting core data on drug users in contact with treatment services. The article discusses the implementation of the TDI in the European countries and describes the main results, limitations, and future perspectives.

A systematic review on models of care effectiveness and barriers to Hepatitis C treatment in prison settings in the EU/EEA.

Hepatitis C prevalence in prison populations is much higher than in the community. Effective hepatitis C treatment within this population does not only have a direct individual health benefit, but may lead to substantial community dividend. We reviewed available evidence on hepatitis C treatment in prison settings, with a focus on the European Union/European Economic Area.

Active Case Finding for Communicable Diseases in Prison Settings: Increasing Testing Coverage and Uptake Among the Prison Population in the European Union/European Economic Area.

Prison populations are disproportionally affected by communicable diseases when compared with the general community because of a complex mix of socioeconomic determinants and environmental factors. Tailored and adequate health care provision in prisons has the potential to reach vulnerable and underserved groups and address their complex needs. We investigated the available evidence on modalities and effectiveness of active case-finding interventions in prisons by searching PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library for records on prison and active case finding with no language limit.

Towards elimination of hepatitis B and C in European Union and European Economic Area countries: monitoring the World Health Organization's global health sector strategy core indicators and scaling up key interventions.

The World Health Organization 'Global Health Sector Strategy on Viral Hepatitis 2016-2021' aimed at the elimination of viral hepatitis as a public health threat provides a significant opportunity to increase efforts for tackling the epidemics of hepatitis B and hepatitis C virus infections across Europe. To support the implementation and monitoring of this strategy, core epidemiological and programmatic indicators have been proposed necessitating specific surveys, the systematic collection of programmatic data and the establishment of monitoring across the care pathway. European Union and European Economic Area countries already made progress in recent years implementing primary and secondary prevention measures.

New psychoactive substances: Current health-related practices and challenges in responding to use and harms in Europe.

Background: The availability of new psychoactive substances (NPS) in Europe has rapidly increased over the last decade. Although prevalence levels of NPS use remain low in the general European population, there are serious concerns associated with more problematic forms of use and harms in particular populations and settings. It has thus become a priority to formulate and implement effective public health responses.

Interventions to prevent HIV and Hepatitis C in people who inject drugs: a review of reviews to assess evidence of effectiveness.

Background: Injecting drug use is a major risk factor for the acquisition and transmission of HIV and Hepatitis C virus (HCV). Prevention of these infections among people who inject drugs (PWID) is critical to reduce ongoing transmission, morbidity and mortality.

Methods: A review of reviews was undertaken involving systematic literature searches of Medline, Embase, CINAHL, PsychINFO, IBSS and the Cochrane Library (2000-2011) to identify English language reviews regarding the effectiveness of harm reduction interventions in relation to HIV transmission, HCV transmission and injecting risk behaviour (IRB).

The effectiveness of opioid maintenance treatment in prison settings: a systematic review.

Aims: To review evidence on the effectiveness of opioid maintenance treatment (OMT) in prison and post-release.

Methods: Systematic review of experimental and observational studies of prisoners receiving OMT regarding treatment retention, opioid use, risk behaviours, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/hepatitis C virus (HCV) incidence, criminality, re-incarceration and mortality. We searched electronic research databases, specialist journals and the EMCDDA library for relevant studies until January 2011.

Associations between availability and coverage of HIV-prevention measures and subsequent incidence of diagnosed HIV infection among injection drug users.

HIV-prevention measures specific to injection drug users (IDUs), such as opioid substitution treatment and needle-and-syringe programs, are not provided in many countries where injection drug use is endemic. We describe the incidence of diagnosed HIV infection in IDUs and the availability and coverage of opioid substitution and needle-and-syringe programs in the European Union and 5 middle- and high-income countries. Countries with greater provision of both prevention measures in 2000 to 2004 had lower incidence of diagnosed HIV infection in 2005 and 2006.

Guidelines for the treatment of hepatitis C virus infection in injection drug users: status quo in the European Union countries.

Treatment guidelines are considered to be an important tool in steering patients to medical treatment. This study was conducted to analyze guidelines for the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in injection drug users (IDUs) in the European Union (EU) countries as a component of treatment access. National and international databases, expert contacts, professional societies, and health administrations were approached to acquire guidelines.