• Sejin Choi, Eunyoung Lee, and Ji Hwan Bang.
• Seoul Detention Center, Ministry of Justice, Uiwang, Korea.
• J. Korean Med. Sci. 2021 Apr 12; 36 (14): e92.

BackgroundEpidemiological data are crucial in designing policies for the control of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections. There is a lack of data on the epidemiology of HIV in Korean correctional facilities such as jails and prisons.MethodsClinical characteristics of the study population were collected through a medical record review.ResultsThe number of people with HIV infection were 83 and the HIV infection prevalence in correctional facilities of Korea was 0.15%. Among them, 10 (12.0%) were diagnosed with the infection when they were incarcerated. The number of drug users was 38 (45.8%). Syphilis-HIV coinfection was observed in 21 (25.3%) patients. Individuals from the group comprising the drug users were more likely to belong to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) community, and had a higher incidence of psychological disorders (31.6% vs. 11.1%, P = 0.029; 50.0% vs. 28.9%, P = 0.049, respectively).ConclusionInmates of correctional facilities showed a five times higher prevalence of HIV infection in Korea, nearly half of whom were drug users.© 2021 The Korean Academy of Medical Sciences.

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