Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is an emerging global healthcare issue. Apart from affecting approximately 3% of the world population, HCV is also a silent disease—the majority of incidences go unrecognised and serve unknowingly as sources of infection to others.^1,2 Add to that the scant information defining the transmission routes and rates of HCV, the programme presented by Skipper et al in their paper evaluating the diagnosis and prevention of HCV in a prison outreach clinic (Gut 2003;52:1500–4) seems a model that could significantly constrain a situation that appears to be reaching epidemic proportions, especially here in Southern Italy.

Studies on the epidemiology of HCV infection in Italy have shown that this infection represents a major health problem throughout Southern Italy, with a prevalence of up to 12.6% in the general population.^3–5 Also, HCV has been linked to the high incidence and mortality rates for liver cancer found in our region (standardised incidence rates per 100 000 inhabitants: 18.9 male, 13.2 female; mortality rates 15.2 male, 9.0 female).⁶ Between January 2000 and December 2001, we performed a cross sectional study of 5844 individuals (4260 men; 1584 women) from the general population and from five select groups in the …