Despite prisons’ legal obligation to provide health care to inmates, many inmates with hepatitis C have been denied access to new, highly effective drugs that cure the disease because they do not have advanced liver damage. As a result, inmates have filed a class-action lawsuit against correctional facilities to provide access to the treatment, and experts have urged the Obama Administration to expand treatment generally. Michael Ninburg, the executive director of the Hepatitis Education Project in Seattle, argues “targeting the prison population is essential to stopping the spread of disease and improving public health.” With roughly one third of people infected with hepatitis C spending time in prison at some point, providing treatment to inmates will eventually be necessary to address this outbreak. Aimed Alliance strongly supports expanding access to treatments for all Americans, including those in our nation’s criminal justice system, in order to address the rising rates of hepatitis C transmission. You can read the full Five Thirty Eight article here.
Last Updated on May 7, 2020 by Aimed Alliance
