Calls for needle-exchange program after hundreds of prisoners at risk
The Queensland government has rejected a call to launch a needle exchange program in the state’s prisons after reports that hundreds of former prisoners may have been exposed to HIV and hepatitis C by sharing injection equipment.
Almost 300 ex-prisoners were potentially exposed to the virus by unknowingly sharing a needle with an infected male offender, according to a memo sent to sexual health services by Queensland Health and first reported by the ABC.
The Ministry’s Communicable Diseases Branch has reportedly asked healthcare providers to offer full sexual health and blood-borne virus testing to all those seeking services “due to the nature of the risk” and the difficulty in determining the timing of exposure.
A Queensland Health spokeswoman said she had come into contact with 295 people potentially exposed to the virus at an adult male correctional center between January and June 2025, some of whom recommended they get tested.
“Staff working at the correctional facility are not thought to be at risk and although the public risk is low, we are taking the necessary precautions,” the spokesman said.
The news has led to a new call for prisons to be provided with free, sterile needles to help prevent new infections of blood-borne viruses and minimize harm from bacterial infections.
Hepatitis Australia chief executive Lucy Clynes said prisons remained high-risk environments for hepatitis C transmission and measures such as needle exchange programs “should be carefully considered as part of a comprehensive public health response”.
“It is estimated that 8 percent of people in prisons have hepatitis C,” Clynes said.
“Testing and treatment, as well as needle and syringe programs, are evidence-based interventions that reduce transmission and protect both people in prison and the broader community.”
Asked on Tuesday whether needle exchange programs should be introduced in state prisons, Health Minister Tim Nicholls said “there should be no needles in prisons” and referred further questions to Correctional Services Queensland.
A QCS spokesman said he was not aware of a needle exchange program in any Australian prisons and that prisoners “are not allowed to possess needles in Queensland correctional facilities to protect officers”.
Nearly one in seven prisoners in Australia said they had injected drugs in prison.
Almost 30 per cent of prisoners said they had injected drugs in their lifetime, with Queensland recording the highest rates on admission to prison.
An investigation into drug injectors in Queensland prisons published in International Journal of Drug Policy this month, It included anecdotes from 30 former prisoners.
One man said he counted 86 people using a needle a day. Another said he contracted acute hepatitis after injecting himself with a syringe “made out of a bread bag, a pen and a sunscreen tube” into the side of his foot.
One 29-year-old described a “never-ending cycle” in prisons where hepatitis C was “treated” but then resurfaced because people shared needles.
Refusal to sterile equipment in prisons could breach the Queensland Human Rights Act, which says prisoners should receive the same standard of health care as the public, researchers said.
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