'Test all prisoners for HIV' Bombay High Court

[Guest guest]

'Test all prisoners for HIV'

10 Jan 2009, 0443 hrs IST, Shibu , TNN

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Friday ordered the Maharashtra government to

conduct voluntary counselling and HIV testing for its 7,000 jail inmates

incarcerated in the four central prisons in Thane, Yerwada, Nashik and Amravati.

The campaign is part of a massive exercise to assess the prevalence of HIV in

jails across the state.

A division bench of Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice Dhananjay

Chandrachud also formed a two member committee comprising Dr Alka Deshpande,

head of anti-retroviral therapy at JJ Hospital and Prakash Sabade, director of

Maharashtra State AIDS Control Organisation (MSACO). The committee has been

asked to study the test results of the inmates and submit recommendations to

tackle the problem of AIDS in prisons.

Though health activists say jail inmates constitute a high risk group, no

figures are available on the number of HIV-positive prisoners. This makes it

difficult to take steps for prevention of AIDS and provision of treatment to

HIV-positive prisoners.

The matter came under the HC scanner last year during the hearing of a bail

application by one HIV-positive prisoner who was serving life sentence in Pune's

Yerwada jail. It came to light that between 2001 and 2006, 32 HIV-positive

prisoners had died in Yerwada jail, many due to lack of proper treatment and

care. The court had then appointed advocates Anand Grover and Yug Choudhary as

amicus curiae (friends of the court) to assist the judges in dealing with the

issue.

" We are persuading prisoners to undergo HIV tests,'' said public prosecutor

Satish Borulkar. In the month of September, around 64 Yerwada jail inmates had

undergone testing. Of these, eight had tested positive for HIV, said the

prosecutor.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Mumbai/Test_all_prisoners_for_HIV/articleshow\

/3958100.cms