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Provisions of Articles 1 and 3 of the Constitution of Ukraine define the priority duty of the state to ensure and realize the rights and freedoms of a person and a citizen, and therefore one of the most important aspects of the formation of a legal social state is the creation of effective national mechanisms for regulatory and legal protection of the right to health care of individuals, who are serving prison sentences, as well as effective law enforcement (implementation of legal norms) in the field of penitentiary medicine. The article is devoted to one of the actual practice-oriented problems of modern criminal-executive law of Ukraine - the analysis of the state of implementation of European standards regarding the provision of medical care to persons sentenced to imprisonment. The authors dwell on some problems of the right to a proper and sufficient level of medical and sanitary support for convicts serving a prison sentence. In particular, attention is drawn to the state of legality and discovered by the prosecutor's office violations of the constitutional rights of those sentenced to imprisonment for health care and proper medical care, which lead to a threat to the health and life of the patients themselves and to the threat of infection with infectious diseases of other convicts serving their sentences in the form of deprivation of liberty in one correctional institution of the State Criminal-Executive Service of Ukraine, which are equated according to Article 3 of the Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms to tort ure and inhuman treatment. On the other hand, a number of problems remain unsolved in the field of health care of prisoners sentenced to imprisonment, who are serving their sentences in correctional colonies and pretrial detention centers of the State Criminal-Executive Service of Ukraine. An indisputable positive achievement of domestic penitentiary medicine is the tendency to bring national mechanisms of legal regulation of criminal-executive relations in the field of health care of prisoners to accordance with European standards and the practice of the European Court of Human Rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Under the auspice of the Comprehensive General Medicine Society Provincial Branche, the XI Provincial Scientific Day and II Territorial Journey of the Ministry of Interior Medical Services took place in Santiago de Cuba from May 23-26, 2018, with the objective of fomenting the exchange of experiences, the dialogue and scientific communication among the participants. In the events 117 delegates participated and 25 guests, among them authorities and personalities of science, administration and teaching representatives, doctors, residents, as well as professionals of several specialties. The topics analyzed were related with the penitentiary medicine and the health programs developed in the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The prevalence of HCV infection is higher among prisoners than in the general population. The introduction of HCV direct-acting antivirals (DAA) holds the potential to improve clinical outcomes also in inmates. However, treatment of hepatitis C in inmates has to face several clinical and logistical issues which are peculiar of prison environment. Recommendations on the management of HCV infection specific for the penitentiary setting in the DAA era remain scant. The Italian Society for Penitentiary Medicine and Healthcare has, therefore, issued these recommendations, to provide clinicians with a guide for the comprehensive management of HCV infection in the restriction setting, taking into account its peculiar characteristics. Results: Dedicated diagnostic and treatment procedures should be established in each prison. In particular, the use of DAAs appears crucial to provide patients with an effective therapeutic option, able to overcome the limitations of IFN-based regimens with a short period of treatment. DAA treatment should be initiated as soon as possible in all eligible subjects with the aim to cure the patient, as well as to limit the transmission of HCV infection both inside the penitentiary system and to the free community, once the inmates ends his/her release. Importantly, efforts should be made to open a discussion with regulatory bodies, to define specific regulations aimed to guarantee wide access to effective therapies of all eligible patients, to optimize the management of and the adherence to the HCV treatment, and to ensure the therapeutic continuity after discharge from prison. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The SARS-CoV-2 spread is a threatening and challenging issue for correctional systems worldwide because of many factors, particularly overcrowding and of the intrinsic characteristics of the population. The prevention measures adopted by the Italian Government were aimed to protect and preserve both inmates' and prison workers' health. The present study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of the adopted strategies. Methods: Data regarding Italian prisons' occupation and prisoners' population from January 2019 to June 2021, as well as the cumulative weekly increase of confirmed cases and the number of doses of vaccine administered among the population of inmates, the prison workers, and Italian population from November 2020 to the end of June 2021, were collected. Results: Prisons' occupation dropped from 120% to 106% after the beginning of the pandemics. The confirmed cases between inmates were consistently lower than among the Italian population and prison workers. A time-series chart showed a time lag of one week between the peaks of the different population. Conclusions: The containing strategies adopted by the Italian correctional system have proved their effectiveness in terms of the prevention and protection of both inmate and staff health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared with the general population, incarcerated people have a higher prevalence of several communicable diseases, including viral hepatitis. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of literature in field. Our review aims to shed the actual knowledge on viral hepatitis among incarcerated people in Italy. We performed a comprehensive literature search, through key electronic databases (Scopus, Pubmed–MEDLINE) and search engines (Google Scholar), of peer-reviewed publications (articles and reviews), grey literature on viral hepatitis prevalence, and models proposed for active case finding and control strategies in prison settings. We found that viral hepatitis epidemiology drastically changed in the last five years, particularly on hepatitis C virus (HCV), reporting an HCV antibody (HCV-Ab) prevalence decrease from up to 38% to ˂20% in penitentiary institutes, as well as an even more important reduction in active infections. Probably, the availability of direct-acting antivirals is contributing to this scenario. However, there is a lack of data available regarding incarcerated women. For this reason, more tailored interventions are needed for this sub-population. Judiciary and regulatory bodies should be prompted to discuss and define specific regulations to optimize case active finding strategies, guarantee wide access to effective preventive and treatment options for viral hepatitis and enhance treatment management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the history of becoming and development of penitentiary medicine as a part of public health with one's own specificity. The development of penitentiary medicine was impacted by development of medical science and practice on the whole, by evolution of legal positioning of convicts and by achievements of psychology, pedagogics, sociology and jurisprudence. The historical periods of development of national penitentiary medicine are distinguished, including interpretation of key issues characterizing its state: legal status of convict, level of integration of public and penitentiary sectors of health care, development of network of medical institutions for convicts, condition of training of penitentiary physicians, attitude of society and state to the problem of health protection of convicts, conformity to international legal standards.