Journal article
Managing outbreaks of highly contagious diseases in prisons: a systematic review
- Abstract:
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Background
There are reports of outbreaks of COVID-19 in prisons in many countries. Responses to date have been highly variable and it is not clear whether public health guidance has been informed by the best available evidence. We conducted a systematic review to synthesise the evidence on outbreaks of highly contagious diseases in prison.
Methods
We searched seven electronic databases for peer-reviewed articles and official reports published between 1 January 2000 and 28 July 2020. We included quantitative primary research that reported an outbreak of a given contagious disease in a correctional facility and examined the effects of interventions. We excluded studies that did not provide detail on interventions. We synthesised common themes using the Synthesis Without Meta-analysis (SWiM) guideline, identified gaps in the literature and critically appraised the effectiveness of various containment approaches.
Results
We identified 28 relevant studies. Investigations were all based in high-income countries and documented outbreaks of tuberculosis, influenza (types A and B), varicella, measles, mumps, adenovirus and COVID-19. Several themes were common to these reports, including the public health implications of infectious disease outbreaks in prison, and the role of interagency collaboration, health communication, screening for contagious diseases, restriction, isolation and quarantine, contact tracing, immunisation programmes, epidemiological surveillance and prison-specific guidelines in addressing any outbreaks.
Discussion
Prisons are high-risk settings for the transmission of contagious diseases and there are considerable challenges in managing outbreaks in them. A public health approach to managing COVID-19 in prisons is required.
PROSPERO registration number CRD42020178827
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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- Files:
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(Preview, Version of record, 484.8KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1136/bmjgh-2020-003201
Authors
- Publisher:
- BMJ Publishing Group
- Journal:
- BMJ Global Health More from this journal
- Volume:
- 5
- Issue:
- 11
- Article number:
- e003201
- Publication date:
- 2020-11-16
- Acceptance date:
- 2020-10-06
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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2059-7908
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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1145853
- Local pid:
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pubs:1145853
- Deposit date:
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2020-11-20
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Beaudry et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2020
- Rights statement:
- ©2020 Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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