Infectious diseases among foreign prisoners: results of a hospital-based management model in Palermo.

Foreign prisoners have a high vulnerability in terms of morbidity and access to care in overcrowded Italian prisons. This paper presents and comments on the management model of infectious diseases in foreign prisoners at our outpatient clinic, in order to describe a model of management for these conditions. Overall, 133 subjects (mean age 35.5 years) from 29 countries were followed for a period of 15 years. The most commonly represented area of origin (54.1%) was the Maghreb region. HCV infection (40.6%), HIV (22.5%), HBV (9.8%) and co-infection (15%, HIV/HCV or HIV/HBV) were observed. Ten subjects had tuberculosis, and only 30% of them were compliant with the treatment. Only 46.3% of HCV m…