Moral and public health duties of preventing and treating infectious disease in prisons

By José de Arimatéia da Cruz and Leigh E. Rich

An Unjust Burden

“Prisoners go to jail to be punished for offending society and not to get infectious diseases” (Simooya 2010, 33), yet communicable disease rates among prisoners and detainees are consistently higher than those in the general population. For example, despite advances in the scientific understanding and prevention and treatment of many of these diseases, incarcerated populations throughout the globe continue to be at greater risk “for the acquisition of blood-borne pathogens, sexually transmitted diseases, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection, and infection with airborne organisms, such as M. tuberculosis, influenza virus, and varicella-zoster virus” (Bick 2007, 1047; see also Simooya 2010; Hammett 2006; Burattini et al. 2000; Guimarães et al. 2001; Coehlo et al. 2007; Catalan-Soares, Almeida, and Carneiro-Proietti 2000; Nogueira, de Melo Abrahão, and Galesi 2012; Ferreira et al. 1996; Osti, de Castro, and Ricci 1999; Sanchez et al. 2005). This has led some to conclude that prisons are “breeding grounds” of disease, but since it is unclear whether individuals become infected more often prior to or during imprisonment (Hammett 2006), this is a stigmatizing and unhelpful depiction of a pressing public health and human rights issue. [continued …]

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da Cruz, José de Arimatéia, and Leigh E. Rich. 2014. Competing imperatives? Moral and public health duties of preventing and treating infectious disease in prisons. Journal of Bioethical Inquiry 11(1): 105–108.