Varansi: HIV amoung the Undertrial of district jail

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Undertrial of district jail found HIV+

VARANASI: Efforts to create awareness among masses regarding the causes of

HIV/AIDS are definitely falling short of expectations. This fact was reinforced

by the recent detection of an HIV positive case at the district jail.

The Central Jail unit of Integrated Counselling and Testing Centre (ICTC) of

National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) had started counselling and testing of

the undertrail prisoners of the district jail from July 18. After this unit

started yielding positive results at Central Jail, the senior jail

superintendent SC Srivastava decided to hold camps of this unit at district jail

on every Saturday.

Till date, three camps have been organised at the district jail where facilities

of counselling and blood tests have been provided to 98 undertrial prisoners.

During the second camp at the district jail, one prisoner was found to be HIV

positive. During counselling session, it came to light that the undertrial was a

railway vendor at railway station and had got affected by sexual transmitted

disease due to unsafe sexual practices.

The counsellor of Central Jail unit of ICTC, Arvind Singh, admitted that the

anti-retro viral treatment of the prisoner had been started from NACO's Banaras

Hindu University centre.

Now the unit staff have also intensified efforts to create awareness among other

prisoners regarding the ways of transmission of this dreaded disease to ensure

that no discrimination is being faced by him. This is not the first case of

detection of HIV positive in the jails of Varanasi.

Srivastava informed TOI on Sunday that before the ICTC unit started at his jail

in January last, one prisoner was detected with HIV positive case. On the

grounds of sharp deterioration in his health condition, he was granted bail by

the court, said Srivastava and added the prisoner left for Mumbai for treatment.

After the opening of ICTC unit at Central Jail, five HIV positive cases were

detected there and ART was being provided to all of them. Srivastava said before

the special camps of ICTC Central Jail unit started at the district jail, one

HIV positive case had existed there as well. But, unlike the Central Jail, where

prisoners turned up to the ICTC unit voluntarily, ensuring a voluntary

participation of the prisoners of district jail at the special camps was not

proving to be an easy task.

The new prisoners coming to the District Jail or those being referred to the

camp by doctors of jail hospital were mainly counselled or being taken for blood

tests. This is the main reason for the low number of prisoners covered during

three camps at the district jail where the number of prisoners is several

hundred. If the jail authorities are to be believed, some prisoners also tried

to complain before the court that they were being forced to attend the camp.

Due to these reasons, not only the unit staff but the jail authorities are

trying to emphasis on increasing awareness among the prisoners. In the same bid,

Singh said, some jail authorities like a jailer of district jail also came

forward for the voluntary test during last camp of the unit.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/City/Varanasi/Undertrial-of-district-jai\

l-found-HIV/articleshow/4848639.cms