Testing For Hepatitis C In Prisons Could Save Many Lives On The Outside

Women in prison get tested for Hep C. Photo by Lucy Nicholson/Reuters. Use: women jail

Around the country, prisoners are clamoring to be cured of a potentially deadly disease, while prison administrators are reeling from the treatment's price tag. Hepatitis C, a virus that can eventually cause cirrhosis, liver cancer, and other serious outcomes, affects some three million Americans, one-third of whom pass through U.S. prisons and jails each year.

Read more: Testing For Hepatitis C In Prisons Could Save Many Lives On The Outside

In This Issue

Today is World AIDS Day, a day when people worldwide to come together to fight HIV, support people living with virus and remember those who have lost their lives.

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10 Things Black Women Need to Know About PrEP

Easy to take

A single daily pill can reduce women's risk of acquiring HIV through sex by more than 90 percent. But many African American women don't know much about pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP)—the medication Truvada—taken by people who do not have HIV to reduce their risk of acquiring the virus. So sadly, even though a lifesaving tool to prevent HIV exists, sistahs continue to become infected with HIV at alarming rates.

Read more: 10 Things Black Women Need to Know About PrEP

Preventive HIV Treatment Shown Effective at Health Clinics

Albert Liu, M.D., Director of Clinical Research at San Francisco's Department of Public Health, holds an antiretroviral pill

Medications taken to prevent HIV infection in high-risk people appear to work well in "real-life" use, a new study suggests.

During a year of taking pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), only two people out of more than 400 high-risk people became infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. And it seems that those who became infected didn't take the medication properly, the study said.

Read more: Preventive HIV Treatment Shown Effective at Health Clinics