Implementation of COVID-19 vaccination services in prison in six European countries: translating emergency intervention into routine life-course vaccination.

Background: Evidence has shown that the risk of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is much higher in prisons than in the community. The release of the COVID-19 vaccine and the recommendation by WHO to include prisons among priority settings have led to the inclusion of prisons in national COVID-19 vaccination strategies. Evidence on prison health and healthcare services provision is limited and often focuses on a single country or institution due to the multiple challenges of conducting research in prison settings.

RISE-Vac-Co-production of Vaccine Education Materials with Persons Living in Prison.

Increasing vaccination knowledge is effective in addressing hesitancy and is particularly important in populations deprived of liberty who may not routinely have access to health information, ensuring health equity. RISE-Vac is a European Union-funded project aiming to promote vaccine literacy, offer, and uptake in prisons in Europe. We consulted persons living in prisons in the United Kingdom (through the Prisoner Policy Network), France, and Moldova to determine their vaccination knowledge gaps, the information they would like to receive, and how they would like to receive it.

A pilot implementation study to scale-up methadone in incarcerated persons with opioid use disorder and retain them on treatment after release in Moldova.

Background: Eastern Europe and Central Asia have intertwined HIV and incarceration epidemics, concentrated in people who inject drugs. Moldova is one of the few countries in this region that offers methadone within prisons, but uptake and post-release retention remains suboptimal. Screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) procedures are a potential implementation strategy to address this problem.

Multi-level implementation factors that influence scale-up of methadone maintenance treatment in Moldovan prisons: A qualitative study.

Introduction: People who inject drugs (PWID) are overrepresented in prison populations, especially in the Eastern European and Central Asian region (EECA), where HIV incidence and mortality continue to rise. Modeling data suggest that methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) scale-up in prison with continuation after release could substantially reduce new HIV infections. Moldova, one of four countries in the EECA to have introduced MMT in prisons, has faced challenges with its scale-up.

Short and long-term outcomes of video observed treatment in tuberculosis patients, the Republic of Moldova.

Introduction: The Republic of Moldova is among the 18 high priority countries for tuberculosis (TB) in Europe. This study compared adherence and short and long-term TB treatment outcomes for TB patients who experienced asynchronous Video Observed Treatment (aVOT) during three months of outpatient treatment versus Directly Observed Treatment (DOT) in operational conditions in 2016-2017 in Chisinau.

Methodology: We used secondary data from the 2016-2017 Randomized Clinical Trial (RCT) that piloted the aVOT Strategy in Chisinau and data from the national TB register.

Tuberculosis Notification Trends and Treatment Outcomes in Penitentiary and Civilian Health Care Sectors in the WHO European Region.

Setting: Tuberculosis (TB) morbidity in penitentiary sectors is one of the major barriers to ending TB in the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region.

Objectives And Design: a comparative analysis of TB notification rates during 2014-2018 and of treatment outcomes in the civilian and penitentiary sectors in the WHO European Region, with an assessment of risks of developing TB among people experience incarceration.

Results: in the WHO European Region, incident TB rates in inmates were 4-24 times higher than in the civilian population.

More evidence or stronger political will: exploring the feasibility of needle and syringe programs in Ukrainian prisons.

Introduction: In 2007, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended for prison authorities to introduce prison needle and syringe programs (PNSP) if they have any evidence that injecting drug use is taking place in prisons. This article presents descriptive evidence that injecting drug use takes place in Ukrainian prisons, it discusses how (denial of) access to injection equipment is regulated in the current system and what changes should be considered in order to implement PNSP.

Background: Ukrainian prisons still live by the laws and policies adopted in the Soviet Union.

Video-observed therapy and medication adherence for tuberculosis patients: randomised controlled trial in Moldova.

Introduction: The effectiveness of video-observed therapy (VOT) for treating tuberculosis (TB) has not been measured in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where >95% of TB cases and deaths occur. In this study, we analyse the effectiveness and patient cost-difference of VOT compared to clinic-based directly observed therapy (DOT) in improving medication adherence in Moldova, a LMIC in Eastern Europe.

Methods: The study was a two-arm individually randomised trial with 197 TB patients (n=99 DOT control group; n=98 VOT treatment group; multidrug-resistant TB cases were excluded).