[Health in prison: shared vulnerability between detainees and health professionals]

In prison, the health professional has to take the sanitary needs of a temporary of chronically vulnerable population. His practice has to meet laws and recommendations, as well as the field reality and its numerous constraints. This puts him in a "shared vulnerability and stigmatization". He attempts to maintain or restore a health status in a deteriorating environment, at least psychologically. He is in the penitentiary world's eye which he depends upon in many ways to achieve his mandate. His activity is scarcely known and recognised by his peers from whom he can be very out of touch. To ensure a humanistic, efficient and equivalent-of-care practice, the health professional must rely on sound knowledge of general healthcare, ethics, deontology and medical laws. Basic and continuous training is a mainspring, like networking and development of federal recommendations.

[Relevant publications in ambulatory general internal medicine in 2007]

Screening procedures for genital Chlamydia infection, cancer risks linked to oral contraceptives, indications and efficacy of HPV vaccination, and diagnostic tools for celiac disease in adults; these are just a few of the general practice themes that were reviewed and analysed in 2007 by residents and chief residents at the Community medicine and primary care Service of the Geneva University Hospitals. These commented summaries, intended for all our colleagues, constitute Geneva's contribution to the literature data base initiated in 2005 by chief residents in Lausanne.